What's to Come
by zippy zany
Summary: Eliot has disappeared without a trace. Can the team find their missing member and help him through a difficult recovery?
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: **Eliot has disappeared without a trace. Can the team find their missing member and help him through a difficult recovery?

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Leverage, wish I did, and then we'll get to see Eliot in every scene! However I do know that the two very rich guys who own Leverage do not like fanfiction but what are we to do until June if they don't provide us with new stuff?

**Warning: **There is not much violence in this story just a lot of Eliot whump but be warned our favorite hitter will not be bouncing back so easily from his encounter with the bad guys.

Don't have a beta and have poor spelling and grammar skills so all the mistakes belong to me.

**Spoilers:** I am assuming that you have seen season 3 however there won't be that many spoilers but if you don't want to spoil it even that much stop reading right now!

If you haven't seen season 3 and are going to read it anyway know that they did take down Damien Moreau and that Eliot at some point in the past worked for him.

Enough rambling here is the story…

**Chapter 1**

The man shivered in the corner of the cell he was in. He had no idea where he was or who he was.

There were several things he had learnt while he was here:

1. No one ever spoke to him. At the beginning he was sure he had asked however now he was not sure if he could form any words let alone questions.

2 .The cell he was kept in during the day had a water leak from somewhere therefore there would always be a thin layer of water on the floor of the cell, never enough to wet him just enough to make him uncomfortably damp.

3. There were no windows anywhere in the building in which he was kept.

4. He wasn't the only occupant of the room he slept in during the night. There were at least a dozen more beds, half of them occupied. He slept restrained to a hard bed, no pillow or blanket that had a metal structure which was bolted to the floor.

5. At night he was restrained onto the bed by his ankles, wrists and two places on his chest.

6. Two times during the day he was taken to the bathroom, he had learnt the hard way that you waited for the bathroom no matter what or the people in charge were upset.

7. He was washed every cycle. He could have done without the washing as he was once again restrained after his clothes were removed and hosed down with a power hose that only had cold water and was scrubbed roughly with hard brushes. They always dressed him without drying him so he spent the rest of the night with his teeth chattering where he lay on his bed which was then soaked as well.

8. They also shaved of any of the hair they could find on his body – he was sure someone had mentioned hygiene at one point but wasn't sure.

9. He was fed two times a day with something resembling porridge. Always right after the bathroom trips although he was glad that someone did the feeding as his arms had lost the function of moving under their own power.

10. Three times a day he was ejected with something. The first one was given after the morning feeding and it left him light headed and not being able to follow anything, not that there was much to follow in a dark cell. The second came halfway through the day and he kind of looked forward to it as it gave him colorful visions and what not, he was sure it was some sort of hallucinogenic but didn't know how he knew that. The last one came at night just before sleep and made all his muscle go mush, it would have been relaxing if he could sleep but he realized early on that he couldn't really sleep much therefore spent most of the nights staring at the ceiling without even being able to lift a finger as rats ran around on the floor and sometimes on him as well.

11. He was always restrained in some way during transport or even when he was placed in the cell which he spent his days in and there was no way he could break out of the restraints. He was restrained in several ways and he thought the different methods were to help him ease his joints however he knew that it did not help, he couldn't move even if he wanted to move.

On the first day his hands would be tied behind his back, his ankles always being tied as well with hard leather cuffs.

The next day, his hands would be tied in the front.

On day three a belt of some sort will be around his waist with his hands tied to it at his sides.

Day four was similar to the previous day but this time his hands would be in the front.

Day five, he would be in a straight jacket.

He had learnt that the procedure went through a cycle and therefore he could keep count of the days, count of the cycles. Although he had no idea why he was counting so far he had counted 26 cycles and 2 days.

He found out that he enjoyed being in a straight jacket the most as it gave him the heat his body need and looked forward to day five. However with the straight jacket information he had realized that he was in some sort of mental institution, he just didn't remember what he had done or why he was here…

On that note it begged to be asked once again – who the hell was he?


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

They had lost their hitter.

Sophie had lost her confidant.

Hardison had lost his best friend.

Parker had lost her big brother.

And Nate…. he had lost his oldest son.

Eliot had disappeared; he had just vanished into thin air several months after the whole San Lorenzo deal. It looked like Damien Moreau had long reaching arms even while in captivity and he did not enjoy an old friend running a game on him. The team had gone to San Lorenzo a week after Eliot had disappeared, when they had put the clues together. They had found to their extreme bad luck that they were 24 hours too late.

Damien Moore had enemies as well and one of them had taken him out while he was still trying to get out of prison. They had searched high and low for their missing family member but it was like the ground had opened up and swallowed Eliot. He was nowhere to be found.

None of them wanted to think that he might have been killed. Moreau would have wanted him to pay, that was his style so he would have wanted Eliot to suffer. They only had to find him.

It was two months before a job they could not possibly say no to came their way whilst their search was going on. One job led to another and then to four and on the fifth one they realized that they needed a hitter. Parker had sulked for a week while Nate had looked over possible candidates.

After three weeks and countless interviews they finally settled on John. He wasn't a criminal with a past like the rest of them, in fact he was 'sickly a good guy' as Hardison had put it.

He was an ex-seal and had been honorably discharged from the service and on his welcome back party a fight had broken out and John had ended up killing one of the fighters out of pure reflex that had been drilled into him. The judge had sent him away for involuntary man slaughter for 10 years and now he was out and with no job prospects.

He was the opposite of Eliot in many ways. First he was a big guy, and supported on an almost shaven head. One look at him and you said 'hired muscle'. He did however have the same sort of deep voice that Eliot had when speaking, Hardison thought it must come with the territory.

He couldn't grift even if his life depended on it and the team realized that they had relied on Eliot for more than just his fighting skills. He always ran the short con within the con and Sophie hadn't had to coach him through anything.

It took a while but they formed a working relationship with John. He had been hired as protection for the team and Parker had told him under no circumstances was he member of this family. He was the hired gun. John had taken that fact to heart and he was quiet and out of the way and did his job to perfection which seem to rub Hardison the wrong way.

They all dealt with the loss their own way and were in fact still dealing. They were in no way ready to except that they might not get Eliot back.

Sophie had been dealing with the situation with brushing up in all the languages she had known and had been learning a new one as soon as she had mastered the previous one. She had told Nate when they did find Eliot they might have to run a con and she had to be ready.

Parker had taken over Eliot's green house which they had found on the roof of his apartment building. Sophie had been pleasantly surprised to find the comment about 'I grow my own food' to be true. Parker had at first killed every single plant that Eliot had and then she had taken a gardening class and to Nate surprise some private lessons and help in getting the greenhouse up and running once again. She spent several hours each day in the greenhouse and they had more fresh vegetables to eat then before.

She also spent a lot of time drawing. None of them were surprised to find sketches of priceless artifacts, plants, horses or rarely of Eliot in various moods sketched to perfection lying around Nate's apartment.

Hardison had given up his online gaming and Nate knew that night time was spent on the internet searching and looking for his friend. Nate was confident that if anybody was going to find Eliot it would be him.

Nate on the other hand was dealing with the loss in a way that none of the team members had anticipated. They had expected him to get drunk and lose it in some way however Nate knew that he was the only thing that was keeping them up right, he didn't have the luxury of falling apart. Besides he didn't think he could deal with the idea of losing a son once again so he was OK living in denial of what could have happened and letting the others believe in it as well.

He was building the best safe slash retirement house anyone could think of for a bunch of thieves. He had always wanted to build a house for Maggie and Sam but never got around to it when Sam got sick. This time the house and its plans were different however basic the idea was the same.

When they found Eliot they would need a place to retreat to so Eliot would have recovery time. He was a realist, he knew as days had turned into weeks and the weeks into months that the Eliot they would find would need a long time to recover from the ordeal.

He had picked Maine as the area and bought an incredible amount of land, he knew that Eliot would have liked somewhere like Texas but he had always been partial to Maine. It had the most beautiful scenery in the world, was out of the way and secluded.

He had brought the property using Leverage funds and no one had batted an eye when the amount of money he was drawing out of the fund became seven figures. Nate even realized that the money he took out would be replaced within a few days.

The property was private and out of the way, the front part overlooking the sea and the back resting against a thick forest. In fact the only way of getting to the property was by boat or by sea plane as there were no roads to it from land. There was a large old four storey house on the property as well. The house was resting against the slope so it rather looked like it was going up step by step with the land rather than going straight up. Nate had fallen in love with it the moment he saw it.

The first thing Nate did was go through his old insurance contacts and get the best private security that money could buy for the whole of the area and then he got gotten both Hardison and Parker to tinkle with it, both had get to see the property, he hadn't mentioned a lot of it to them because he wanted it to be a surprise. He had the company connect the surveillance to the house, not even a bird could fly by without them knowing within a five mile radius.

Then he went on with re-building the house. The bottom floor became a game room, with an indoor pool and gym and a corner for a bar and electronics games corner which exited almost right onto the beach. The floor up there was a huge living room with a fire place, a nice dining room and a huge state of the art kitchen including two guest bedrooms. There was also a huge veranda that surrounded this floor so you can sit outside on nice weathers. Also from this floor you could exit to the rest of the estate after a short walk up the hill.

The floor above had his and Sophie's joint room with Parker sharing the floor.

He asked the architect who was redesigning and helping to build the house to make sure that there was a lot of personal space. So everyone got their own bedrooms with on suite bathrooms as well as an extra room to do whatever they want with it.

His own and Sophie's joint common room he had turned into a comfortable living room once again with a fire place. Parker's he had modeled into an art studio with a huge table where she could lay out her locks and etc.

The floor above was for the boys. They both had huge bedrooms with a skylight and a personal common room. Hardison's he arranged to have the strongest electric wiring and satellite connection. Eliot bedroom was done in earth tones and was left spacious as Nate knew he liked his bedrooms that way. His common room was the one with the best view overlooking the sea with book cases all around the room with a comfortable couch positioned for the best light with a lazy boy strategically placed. Half of the book cases Nate filled with the classics as he knew that Eliot always had those in his office or at home, the rest he left to be filled. Eliot had once commented on his own empty book cases when asked.

"If you are gonna fill them from the get go why bother?"

Each floor, each bedroom in fact had its own state of the art panic room, the panic rooms were built in such a way that they were independent from the rest of the house and a person could last up to six weeks in them. Nate was not going to leave anything to chance.

Also on the property a green house was being built, the small barn that was there was being looked over making sure that it could handle some livestock as well as house a few horses.

The whole estate would run on its own solar and wind power as well as getting electricity from the main land however Nate wanted the estate to be as independent as possible. He also had the latest models of generators placed on the property just in case.

Should they live in the house year around Nate knew that there would be a month or two in winter where they would have no contact with anyone.

He had envisioned the house as a place he and Sophie could retire to and the children could pop in from now and then, live year around if they wanted to.

He had been building for a while and he had no idea what he would do when he finished the house and it was ready to be used and they had no Eliot.

Fortunately or unfortunately he did not need to find the answer to that question. It was an ordinary Wednesday night when his phone rang at 3:52 am in the morning.

He was downstairs with Sophie waiting for Hardison to come within 3 minutes.

First to walk through the door after eight minutes was Parker, she must have been rattled to walk through the front door.

Two minutes later Hardison came in carrying his lap top. He set it down on the kitchen counter they had gathered around and looked at them all.

After seven months and fourteen days they heard the words they had been longing to hear.

"I've found him."


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: This is very short - it actually should have been a tag to the last chapter however I couldn't do without it so here it is.  
_

_Thank you to JadeAlmasy who has agreed to beta the story so it should be easier to read._

**Chapter 3**

Even though that was exactly what they were expecting to hear, there was a few seconds of dead silence in the kitchen.

It was Sophie who broke it with a choked question, "Where?"

Hardison looked uncomfortable for a second there before taking a deep breath, "he is in a little back water town in the Ukraine," he said.

"Prison?" asked Parker.

"No," said Hardison looking like he did not want to indulge in the details.

"He is being held privately then," said Sophie even as her mind started to run through possible scams they could run to get Eliot out.

"Not exactly," said Hardison.

"Hardison spit it out!" commanded Nate a little more forcefully then he intended.

Hardison took another deep breath and cut eye contact with them before answering, "he is in a mental institution for the criminally insane," he said in one rush.

When there was no sound he went on, "they have him under a different name, different alias. He is not even registered as an American but his records say he is one of the six most dangerous serial killers they have."

"Serial killer," squeaked Parker.

"The records they have on him is pretty extensive and gruesome," explained Hardison.

Nate took charge of the situation, even though there was no need, "who cares what the records say," he said and continued, "Sophie call the air strip and tell them to have the jet ready, Parker call John and tell him to meet us there and Hardison," he said and waited until the younger men meet his eyes.

"Good job," he said and felt like laughing for the first time in months, "let's go steal an Eliot," he said before turning around to get dressed and grab the ready bag that was always ready to go.

* * *

_Next up the rescue - hopefully will be done over the weekend! And then the rest will come quicker as the other 4 chapters are actually written and awaiting chapter 4._


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: Here we go... thank you to JadaAlmasy who is taking time to beta this story so hopefully my habit of using the wrong words will diminish and that there are less grammar mistakes. _

_If you see italics know that they are speaking another language as not everyone in another country is going to speak English. _

**Chapter 4**

Getting in the mental institution and setting up identities was easier than usual. The team found out that not only Hardison had been spending time looking for Eliot he had also been setting up identities and back stories for all of them throughout the world.

They had all looked at him in shock when they had found out what he had been doing, he in return had shrugged and told them it was one way to pass the time.

Sophie could speak both Russian and Ukrainian so with a little bit of typing on Hardison's part she became a consulting doctor in the hospital.

Hardison had created a refugee background for himself for almost all the European countries that had refugee status. He was a political refugee from a small African country that gave him almost all the rights in the country. He very quickly created that he had once been studying criminal psychology before being run out of his county so that qualified him as a nurse in the hospital.

Since Nate spoke Russian he was in the role of a bureaucrat coming into inspect the facility.

After looking the facility over Nate decided that none of them were going in as patients so Parker was left to scope the place out with John.

The con was simple, Nate would get a tour of the facility locate Eliot, Sophie and Hardison would make note of who was watching him before breaking him out. They were planning a maximum of four days before the break out.

XXXXX

_"I would like to see everything there is to see if I am to make an informed evaluation,"_ said Nate as he followed the director of the hospital around. He had come for what was supposed be a surprise inspection.

_"You have seen the whole hospital,"_ replied the director as he led Nate towards the offices. Nate was trying to hold in his reactions. The institution was in sad shape, the government obviously gave very little money to them however they had found that the staff was trying their best, at least in the main part of the hospital.

The hospital had three parts; A wing, B wing and C wing also referred to as 'the pit'. Hardison and Sophie found out that 'the pit' was where they would likely find Eliot although either of them had a chance to venture down for a look. They had yet to make a sight confirmation that Eliot was indeed in this institution.

Nate had wanted to go in right away but was playing it safe as he had first sent in Hardison and then Sophie a day later and he himself two days after. It was four days too much in his books but whoever had Eliot was good enough to keep one of the world's best retrieval specialists in captivity for over seven months and he wanted to play this one safe as possible.

Nate pretended to be looking at the papers in his hand, _"I have yet to see section C,"_ he said as he made gibberish notes into the file he had.

_"No one ever wants to see section C,"_ said the director looking stumped. Nate just raised an eyebrow and the director said _"this way,"_ and led the way.

Section C was located under section B and it was in the basement two floors below the surface and was left over from World War II days. There apparently was one way down into the basement and no other entrances or exits. As Nate walked down the stairs he could feel the stale air and shuddered at the thought of their friend down here.

_"We can go back up if you like, this isn't for the faint hearted,"_ said the director.

_"No that's OK, I would like the whole tour,"_ replied Nate.

_"You have to know that there people down here deserve to be here,"_ said the director. Nate just nodded his head wanting to find Eliot as fast as possible. _"There are only six of them however we have room for twelve,"_ continued the director as he put in the combination to a door that looked like it belonged to an ancient safe rather than a mental institution.

And then Nate found himself in a long dark corridor. There were locked metal doors on both sides and the director was explaining.

_"We keep the inmates in their own isolation chambers through the day and then move and give them a slight sedative ensuring that they have a calm night,"_ he finished and by that time the corridor was short enough that they had made it down it and where looking at a large room with dirty beds with restraints on them.

_"They are restrained at night?"_ he questioned.

_"You never know what they might get up to even under a sedative,"_ defended the director. _"I mean they found body parts of eighteen different people at the house of one of these people. Can you believe it? They don't even know what he did with the rest of the bodies."_

And he turned around to look at Nate, _"well that's it. You have seen the whole place and we better get out of here,"_ and he seemed desperate to leave the dark depressing place and Nate couldn't blame him he wouldn't want to spend anytime down there himself.

He cursed himself as he couldn't come up with a legitimate reason to look into the chambers and they had no idea which one Eliot might be in and he didn't want Parker unlocking each one to have a look as the other people in here despite being kept in inhumane conditions were still dangerous and insane.

At the end of the corridor he turned around to have one last look and tried to come up with a plan to find out which one of these torture chambers that had his son. 'we're here Eliot and we're coming for you just hold on,' he whispered under his breath before turning around and following the director back to the land of the living.

XXXXX

Alec couldn't believe that he was actually going to go through with this. They needed to have visual confirmation of where Eliot was and see if anyone was watching him therefore one of the three guys that worked down at the pit won a weeklong trip and he made sure that the staff was short on demand so he was the only available member of the staff they were going to take down.

He went down the stairs as a man that was going to his execution. He was met down below with the two other orderlies that worked down there.

"Don't worry," said the first one in English as Hardison had made it known that he spoke very little Ukrainian, the other guy apparently spoke no English. "We just have to remove the scum from their beds and into holding cells and then we are done until it is time for bed."

The second orderly unlocked the door with the digital combination Alec tried to get the combination memorized while looking unsuspicious, not that it mattered he could crack it under twenty seconds however he needed things to distract him. When the door was unlocked they moved in and he could see that while the rest of the hospital was kept as well as it could on the pitiful amount of government money this part of the hospital hadn't seen any assistance in a while.

The whole place was dark and gloomy. They moved off towards a place that looked like a large room with beds in it. Hardison looked around in shock, he was sure that these people would have been better off in a maximum security prison rather then this miserable place and to think that his best friend had been down here for months.

They had all been curious to know what happened to Eliot that he couldn't break himself out. So far the place didn't look like it was that secure. Once they had eyes on Eliot the heist would take place, they also needed to be sure of who was watching him.

Hardison tried to be uninterested as his eyes roamed around the room at the sorry looking patients that were stamped down onto their beds. He tried to hold in his breath as his eyes landed on a familiar however unfamiliar figure at the far end of the room.

He would have loved to rush over right away however he followed the other two to the other inmates. The other two orderlies were very efficient in getting the so called patients out of their beds into the bathroom and then to their holding cells for the day.

Once the straps that were on the beds removed they would secure the patients hands and ankles and move them to the bathroom. The patients gave very little resistance as staying immobile for the entire night had left them stiff to move too much. Since it was his first day Hardison was excused from assisting in the bathroom that left him with the feeding of the patients.

They had brought the food down with them and it looked like it was old porridge that Hardison wouldn't have fed to his dog.

Many of the patients were coherent enough to feed themselves once placed at the table once again secured to the chair in another room so all Hardison had to do was watch over them. He saw one of the patients eye him in a way a lion would eye a gazelle and he tired to hold on to his mask of none feeling.

Eliot was the last patient that the other two brought in and placed by a table. Hardison watched as they didn't even bother to remove any of the restraints on him. His entire head was shaved as all the others had been and he looked skeleton thin and his eyes seemed glazed over.

One of the guards sat down next to him and started to stuff Eliot with the porridge, at least Eliot seemed to still have a sense of self preservation as he swallowed what was put in his mouth. Hardison had wanted nothing more than to get him out of here right then and there. The heist was taking place tonight and damn Nate and his precautions.

After the meal was over they hoisted Eliot up and dragged and dumped him into room number 'five' then one of the guys pulled out a prepared syringe and stuck it in Eliot's thigh. Hardison watched as Eliot gave a painful twitch to being injected. So that is how they were keeping Eliot here, never giving him a chance to regain any sense of equilibrium.

"So we keep the inmates in the same chambers?" he questioned trying to sound uninterested. When he was given the affirmative all he wanted was for the day to end so they could get Eliot out of here.

The night ritual was the same, the inmates were taken out of their rooms back to the bathroom, fed the same thing that was brought down in the morning and left there for the whole day in the same bowls that weren't washed and then strapped down onto their beds.

He watched as Eliot was the last one to be strapped down and once again injected with something this time going into his upper arm. He noted that none of the other patients were given any injections only a pill to take that they all seemed to be happy to take.

Hardison thought that he would be happy too if he was stuck down here and someone offered him narcotics. So far he noted that no one was watching Eliot. Perhaps they had been at first, however it had been seven months, and they probably thought no one was coming for Eliot. There was no way he could break himself out, not while looking like he did and drugged out of his mind.

So Hardison went back to the apartment they had with all the news. After all the shouting and the screaming (Parker and Hardison wanted to go back that night) it was decided that the heist would take during the day. They would create a distraction in the form of a fire alarm in section A and when all the staff was occupied over at that area Parker and John would break into section C and get Eliot out of there. Parker had said that she would do it herself however Hardison was the one who told them that Eliot would not be going anywhere without assistance for a while.

Sophie spent the entire night on the phone with a very private hospital in Switzerland who would take Eliot in without any questions as that was their department. Hardison called in sick the next day as he worked like a maniac creating the paper work and setting all the bugs in place because once they were up in the air all traces of them existing would disappear.

The private jet that Leverage Associates owned was sitting on a private air strip waiting for them. The pilots were already given a bonus to keep quiet and they had worked for them before so they kind of knew about the weird group but explaining why Eliot was in that state would take some creativity. Nate left that to Sophie to figure out as he started clean up the apartment while listening over on the coms as the others prepared to steal their team mate out of a mental institution.

At the end of the day the heist was rather easy. And if Nate thought about it how difficult would it be for three master thieves who between them had stolen millions of dollars worth of jewelry and art work to steal a person out of an institution that wasn't designed to keep people out but rather in.

Four hours later Nate was sitting on the plane an hour away from the Basel airport where he was told an ambulance was waiting for them at the private hangar they were to dock in. He couldn't take his eyes of Eliot. He was skeleton thin, the weight loss he had been prepared for after Hardison's explanation but the sunken eyes that were glazed over and high as a junkie was not something Nate had been prepared for.

Faint stubble could be seen on his face and head as hair started to grow and he was filthy. Hardison had told them what he had been told; that the inmates of section C were washed once a week and it must be coming up to a week for their friend as they could see grime on him. Sophie had taken a damp cloth when they had brought him on board and cleaned his face and hands however that seemed to enhance how much more he was filthy anywhere else.

What none of them had been prepared for was the seizure. After about an hour into the air their friend had started to thrash and none of them had been ready for it. It had been John who after watching from the side lines for a few minutes who had dug through the first aid bag that Eliot himself had prepared eons ago and injected Eliot with a short term sedative. None of them had expected Eliot to just wake up after deducting that he had been kept at the hospital only due to the drugs but seizures were not what Nate had been expecting.

Now Eliot's heart beat was steady but a little slow for Nate's liking and he watched the too thin chest rise and fall as he drew in swallow breaths. He hoped that no other surprises awaited them as the pilot told them to fasten their seat belts for they were about to land.


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: I would like to point out that I am not a doctor and have no idea about the brain, the information in this chapter was written after about half an hour of research through google so if there are any things that doesn't make sense medically my apologies._

**Chapter 5**

Parker walked out after listening to the doctor for about forty five minutes. This couldn't be happening. The doctor had been talking about the effects of continues use of the drugs and the immobile way they had kept Eliot were.

On top of the list was brain damage…

It was not possible… Eliot could not be damaged she was the who was not her big brother. She made her way down the very expensive and very private hospital they were in, all the way down to Eliot's room.

The rooms in this hospital looked like hotel suits rather than hospital rooms. It didn't even smell like a hospital, if Eliot was aware he would have appreciated that fact. She pushed the door to the room and entered, the nurse that was in the room got up when he saw her and made his way out giving her a little smile.

The hospital had decided that Eliot should not be left alone under any circumstances, most of the time there was a member of the team present with him but they all opted to be listening to the doctor so they had left him for a short period of time.

There was always a soft light in the room and soft instrumental music with water running and birds chipping playing in the background. The doctor had explained that even though Eliot seemed to be out of it he would appreciate the light and the sounds as he had been deprived of them for so long.

She took a seat on the bed that he was on and started to unbuckle the restraint that was around his left wrist. The hospital had no choice in the restraints as they did not want to give him any medication until the drugs from the institution were out of his system or the test results came back and they knew what they were dealing with.

The result of getting Eliot out had been Eliot going through painful withdrawal without being aware of what had been happening. He had fallen unconscious after the drugs had started to wear off, if you could call the state he was in before conscious. Parker had assumed that when he had stopped taking the drugs that he would become aware but the doctors had explained that his body had been so used to the drugs that it had shut down when it was not getting them.

He would be better once they were out of his system and he was rid of some of the craving for them or when they found the counter medication to balance the effects.

The result of not having the drugs had Eliot shaking so bad and curling around himself in pain that he had dislodged the IVs that were giving him the nutrition and the hydration his body had been lacking.

They were told that their friend had been slowly and painfully but surely being killed. The combination of the drugs and the torture that he was put through was to kill him.

One of the cocktail of drugs that had been introduced to his system was to break down his muscles and muscle control, not quite there as Eliot was still able to move but the doctor told them that he very likely would only have basic big muscle motor skills and he couldn't give them an estimate on how Eliot might recover. He could rebuild his muscles and motor skills up but how much his brain could relearn was the problem.

One of the other cocktails actually fried her brother's brain. If Moreau was alive Parker knew she would have no qualms about taking up a gun and shooting the bastard.

The doctor had shown them lots of images of Eliot's brain like they needed proof, like they could understand what to look for in the images. The doctor's prognosis still rang in Parkers brain.

Hippocampus – the part of the brain that controlled long term memory - profound damage.

Broca's area – speech - profound damage.

Primary motor cortex - voluntary motion - damaged.

Reticular formation - capacity to process information – dormant with signs of damage.

Prefrontal cortex - higher-order thoughts and decision-making - dormant with signs of damage.

Parker didn't know if the brain had anymore parts however she was sure the doctor would have said 'damaged'. Basically everything that made Eliot Eliot were damaged.

The only part that wasn't damaged was the cerebellum and that was what kept a person alive; breathing, blinking, sleeping, being thirsty and hungry and the doctor told them it had been on purpose so that Eliot would live as long possible.

Oh yes… let's not forget the fact that her big brother was also a junkie now, some of the drugs they had given him were highly addictive and Eliot couldn't function without some of them for the time being.

Parker threw the IVs going into Eliot's body a nasty look, one of them was carrying a drug that the doctor thought was safe. It was a relaxant that wasn't overly dangerous but highly addictive if used in the long term. The doctor had assured them that this particular drug did not have any nasty side effects however the withdrawal procedure was bad for both the patient and the loved ones. He had told them that it would be better if Eliot took small doses of this particular drug just to get rid of the craving he was going to have until he got better control.

He had also hinted at some long term facilities that would take Eliot in. That was when Parker had gotten up and left. There was no way she was letting Eliot be in another institution. Over her dead body! She could steal anything, she would steal Eliot out of any institution the team might want to stick him in after all she had done it once she could do it again.

She held his hand and brought it up to her lips. He looked so small and frail lying on the bed. Eliot had always seemed larger than life. She had know that he was not every tall in fact they were almost the same height however he had looked so much bigger than her. Now he had lost so much weight that she could probably put her hand around his wrist and her fingers would meet, he had lost all the bulk that made him 'Eliot Spencer'. She figured that he could probably easily fit in an air vent now as well.

They had also shaved off his beautiful hair, she reached over and ran her hands over the very short hair that even after a week had started grow.

She heard the door open and the rest of the team walk in. She spared them a glance it looked like they were at a loved ones funeral. That she knew because she had seen the look on her parents, actual parents, faces when her younger brother had passed away.

Sophie moved over to the bed and she grabbed onto Eliot's other hand that was still restrained to the bed and with the back of her other hand she stoked his face. Parker could see that she had tears on her lashes. Hardison was quiet in the corner and Parker knew that he blamed himself for not finding Eliot sooner also he had been in the institution and for a day had been down in the pits forced to watch and participate in what had been done to Eliot.

Nate looked around the room and took charge of the situation.

"All right," he paused to take a look around, he had that look on his face that he did when he was giving out jobs before a job.

"Hardison get as solid a back story as you can, so we can take Eliot home without arising any questions. Sophie get with your contacts in the States to see what hospital or clinic in the Boston area would take Eliot in without too many questions. I'm going to go see Dr. Chekov again to see what experts he could recommend in the Eastern side of the States and get in touch with them and have them flown over if necessary for a consult."

He stopped to take in a breath, "Parker," he said, he looked over at Parker and promised himself that he would do everything in his power to get that dead look out of her eyes. "You stay with Eliot."

Parker nodded her head and before everyone could leave she choked out, "I will not let him be locked up in an institution," she said and they noticed that some life had crept back into her eyes.

"No matter how good or how expensive or how exclusive it is," she said getting fiercer; "he is not spending time locked up in a pretty cage."

At that everyone looked uncomfortable; it was something they had not discussed. Something they had not thought of until the doctor had mentioned it two days ago before telling them what was wrong, he had just mentioned that they might need a long term care for their friend. They had all known that there would be recovery time for their hitter however none of them had considered the fact he might never be fine even after the recovery time.

Decisions like these had rested with Nate, they had all given up that responsibility willingly over to him when they had decided to be part of this team but Parker was determined to fight it if that is what Nate decided.

"No one said anything about putting Eliot in an institution," Nate said halting in his exit from the room. "However we need to know the best course of action and the best care if we want to help him," he said.

"And if all experts say that he is better off in an …" started Sophie but couldn't finish.

"No." said Nate and they all looked at him, the way he had said 'no' had been clear and precise. Parker felt a smile come onto her face for the first time in two weeks since they had found Eliot, Nate felt the same way about the situation as she did.

"Eliot will get the best care money could buy," said Nate. They all knew that Nate did not have much money left over however none was going to complain. Parker knew she would give up her Swiss bank accounts (plural) so she could see Eliot growl at her for poking him.

"Even if he needs to have a small army of personal caregivers, he WILL have his own and in private." He said in a clear and strong voice. Eliot had always been a private person and he had many more enemies out there who would not care that the infamous retrieval specialist was injured to extract their revenge. If he could have a say in it Nate was sure that he would prefer private care and that is what he was going to get.

Nate had lost one son because of money, this one would get the best care money and otherwise could buy.

He looked at each member in the eye and when they nodded their head in consent he moved his eyes onto the next until at last his eyes meet Parker's. She threw him a grin so crazy and happy that it had him shaking his head and smile a little in return before turning and exiting the room.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

It had been four weeks since they were back and three since Eliot had woken up. They had him in a very exclusive and private clinic just outside of the city. It was a place that the famous and infamous went to when they wanted something done. The clinic had its own private army for security and confidentially was their middle name.

After three weeks of tests, expensive consults from experts that came from all over the world and basic rehabilitation Eliot was fine as he was going to be at the moment and some decisions had to be made for his care for the foreseeable future.

Many had suggested institutions and when faced with a resounding 'no' from all fronts had started to explain what Eliot would need to be rehabilitated so he could lead a relatively normal life.

First, Eliot would need care around the clock for the foreseeable future. He could not do much on his own. The staff at the clinic had found that when Eliot had been lead to the bathroom he knew what to do or when lead he could walk certain distances and when presented with simple puzzles and mind games to place together he would try his best to work at them. But he was yet to show any indication of starting a movement on his own.

Second, his muscles had all but disappeared and like the doctor at the clinic in Switzerland had said he had trouble with all movements. They were uncoordinated and clumsy. His hands would shake so much that when he reached for a puzzle piece with his right hand he grabbed his right wrist with his left hand for stability.

However it gave the team hope when they saw the determination that Eliot had on his face even when faced with that small task. He would reach out to hold the water bottle he was presented with as well, the doctors were happy even with that small amount of independent movement because it meant that Eliot was doing it by himself.

Then, there were the muscle destroying drug, whatever it was, it had been custom made and the people at the clinic didn't know what it was and Nate cursed that he had not asked Hardison to grab vials of the stuff they were giving to Eliot so they could be tested later. It slowed down the rebuilding of Eliot's muscles and his muscle control and was responsible for the shaking. The experts weren't sure for how long the shaking would continue but it didn't look to be going anywhere soon.

Also when Eliot got tried his muscles would spasm leaving him sobbing in pain. For this the staff at the clinic had created a schedule that allowed Eliot a sleep period after the morning so his muscles could relax and he could rest especially because the morning was when they did physical rehabilitation.

The team concluded that they would need a physical therapist for Eliot and the others in the team had looked shocked when they found out that their new member John was a certificated physical therapist. He had gotten the qualifications in prison. Nate had thrown them an infuriating smile when they found out. Apparently that was one of the reason John had been hired in the first place.

Nate had known that Eliot would need some sort of therapy and that he would feel comfortable working with an ex-seal who was not so polished in his reputation. He had never in his life imagined this but the principal had been the same. After the first week John had been introduced into Eliot's physical therapy in the clinic so he knew what was going on and knew what to do once Eliot was released into their care.

He was also a message therapist, telling the team he had gotten qualified in both of these so he could work privately for a situation like this. The family would only have to hire one person for both jobs.

Nate had gathered the team in his apartment that night. Normally one of them would stay with Eliot at the clinic even at night however he needed them here for this. When they were all sitting around the kitchen table he began,

"We need to make a decision on where we want to move Eliot and what we want to do for the foreseeable future,"

"Now, you know that Eliot is going to need long term care, maybe care for the rest of his life," he let that hang in the air for a moment, it had been five weeks since they had found out about the fact and for all of them it had began to sink in. They were no longer in denial or under the impression that Eliot would just wake up alright.

"No one can ask you to give up your lives to take care of Eliot. I mean you are young and have your entire lives in front of you," this was directed to the two young members of the team.

"What do you suggest?" said Hardison and Parker jumped in,

"If you are going to suggest an institution I swear you have another thing coming," she said voice full of anger.

"No," said Nate holding up his hands to fend them off. "I am going to take Eliot up to the house in Maine," he said letting that sink in.

"I built that house for retirement and if it just came early for me to use it so be it," he finished.

Suddenly Parker had tears in her eyes, and she knew that she didn't cry that often however everyone's emotions had been high in the last few weeks, "so you are going to take Eliot away and what? We are supposed to just go on with our lives?"

"No, no, no," Nate got up to move around so he was sitting next to Parker. "Maybe I haven't been clear. The house is for all of us," suddenly he looked unsure, like the time he was giving out Christmas presents. "I mean I know you haven't seen the house but there is a room for all of you," he said suddenly being quiet because he was embarrassed.

They had talked about being a family but they didn't live together, yes they spent more than enough time together to be unhealthy but living together was something else.

There was total silence after his proclamation. "I was hoping you can all come for the first adjustment period and then we'll see where it goes from there. I mean if you wish to stay, great, but if you wish to leave that would also be OK. But know that you will always have a space and a room at your family home," he finished firm.

After a moment or two of silence it was once again Parker who broke it, "I get my room?" she asked voice small, nowhere had she ever had her own room.

"Yes, you get your own room," repeated Nate with a smile.

"Is it pink?" asked Parker suddenly bouncing in place.

Nate frowned and wanted to say 'no it was not pink, twenty five year olds did not have pink rooms' but just couldn't bring himself to say it. "It can be any color you want," he said instead. "You can even paint the walls yourself if you want to," after hearing that Parker gave a very unParker like squeal and got up and dragged Hardison up as well.

"Come on, let's go and chose colors," she said. Nate stopped her,

"Ah Parker? Hardison hasn't actually said he'll be joining us," with that everyone turned onto Hardison.

"I wanna microwave in my bedroom," was Hardison's answer.

Nate smiled, "I believe there is one in your private sitting room," he said.

"We get our own sitting rooms?" asked Parker while seeming to bounce in place.

"I want it to be green!" she exclaimed before continuing to drag Hardison off.

Nate turned onto Sophie who had a soft smile on her face, "what?" asked Nate.

"I don't see you asking me if I want to move with you to Maine," she said as she got up to move in close to him.

"Well you see," began Nate, "I was kind of counting that you'll move with me and there is a huge fireplace in our sitting room and we'll sit by the fire on cold winter days, take long walks by the sea on mild springs and maybe go swimming in the summer."

"We do have our private beach you know," he told her with his eyebrows going up and down indicating that there will be more going on then swimming.

They had been together since San Lorenzo and the whole team had taken it in stride and when Eliot had disappeared their relationship had only grown stronger. Sophie still had her place but she basically lived with Nate.

"And I was thinking," went on Nate,

"Yeees?" questioned Sophie in a way that had made many men drool after her.

"In a year or two the kids might want a little brother or sister to run around with," suggested Nate. They had not talked about the future, they were just living in the present but here was a promise to the future that Sophie was waiting for. For Nate to overcome the grief of losing a child and wanting children once again, the grown up teenagers they seemed to have acquired did not count!

Her smile said yes a million times over however she was always the seductress, "why Mr. Ford are you suggesting that I give up my figure for you?" she questioned even as she made her way upstairs with the intention being clear.

Nate was planning on going back to the clinic to be with Eliot even though they had been assured that Eliot would be fine for the night. They hadn't left him alone for more than a couple hours since getting him back. Nate followed Sophie up the stairs knowing that he would returning to the clinic but an hour or two of relaxation would do him good.

* * *

_A/N: Well here you are... the next chapter should be here tomorrow and there will be a new update each day for the next few days. YEAH! _

_I have been a member of this site since '03 and I read an incredible amount of fanfiction - probably more than that is healthy for me. However I have not realized why authors always ask for reviews until just recently. They leave the person who is writing the story with a great sense of achievement. We all write for ourselves first however to know that others have read your work and feel important enough to leave a review is a great high! _

_I have made an effort to leave a review to all the stories I have been reading lately, I would greatly appreciate it if you dropped me a note to tell me what you like, don't like - anything._

_Thanks for reading!_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

It took them a few more weeks to actually move to the house. The house needed a few last minute changes and additions. Parker had to change the color of her room and sitting room.

Each member went to the house and came back moving their stuff. Hardison spent several days setting up his computers and getting the place to his liking. He had helped Nate set up the surveillance with the company and he had put his heart into it thinking it was Nate's house but now the stakes were higher, they needed top notch security if they were going to stay under the radar for a while and now they had Eliot to keep safe as well.

Parker supervised the moving of every single plant she had in, what she now thought as, her green house to the one on the estate.

Sophie who had spent time on her parent's farm house in the summer times organized the small live stock that was going to live on the estate. Some chickens, a few cows and a few sheep joined the family. She herself knew how to take care of a small flock not that she ever wanted to or had the desire to. She had reassurance from both John and Hardison that they would help with the keep and she knew that once Eliot was well enough he would help as well so the question of whether to get someone to help was put off.

They tried to explain to Eliot what would be happening but they saw no sign of understanding from the man.

So far he was fairing far better than the experts had predicted. He still looked frail, he had only gained a few pounds that he desperately needed however it was nowhere enough and the special diet the clinic had him on was helping but he had almost no appetite and it was a chore to get him to eat.

His hands shook too much for him to tackle the task of eating and Sophie figured that being fed by some else was also a factor in his lack of appetite. Eliot might not remember who he was but it looked like his core personality was still the same as he didn't seem to like getting help.

His hair was also kept short because it was easier to take care of and Sophie had realized why Eliot had had long hair. While she had been quiet when Hardison had made fun of his hair she had also wondered his fascination with it. Now she knew. She knew that Eliot was in his early thirties but with the long hair, the harsh life and the permanent scroll he had looked closer to forty but with short hair he looked young and innocent.

Sitting on the bed with a thin body and short hair he looked about twenty five and Sophie had to hold in her mirth because when he saw her the other day he had thrown her a grin so bright that if this man went out and said he was a retrieval specialist people would ask about his mama.

Sophie decided that once they were out of the clinic she would get him to grow his hair out again. She would have it long until he could decide what he wanted to do with it.

The actual time of the move was quiet agitating for the formal retrieval specialist as he did not understand what was happening. But after a few days he seemed to settle down on the estate and seemed to relax more as he noticed that there weren't any more doctors and nurses about.

He seemed generally more relaxed and dare they say happy that it was just them. They settled around a schedule that revolved around him. There was always someone with Eliot at all times and on more than one occasion there would be two or more members of the team present with him.

One of the areas that Eliot's brain was damaged the most was the long term memory, the hippocampus. Eliot might not remember anything from the past but people with no memories had been known to build a new life for themselves and the doctors assured them while Eliot might never recover his old memories he would begin to make new ones. It might be harder as the brain would have to compensate for the damaged area but the doctors were sure that since he seemed to remember the people around him since waking up and showed signs of remembering events from the previous days it were clear that he was retaining some information.

The doctors had told them that Eliot's Broca's area was one of the places that had been also damaged beyond healing. This area was the area that controlled speech. Eliot didn't show any signs of speaking or matter of fact understanding any speech for that matter. Anything they said to him seemed to wash over him and because he didn't understand anything said to him he didn't seem to understand what was going on.

The doctors had advised that Eliot should be surrounded by speech and someone always speak to him and tell him what was happening as getting used to speech was one way of healing. This came easy for Hardison who spent a lot of time speaking to Eliot and Nate couldn't be sure but Eliot seemed actually pleased when his time with Hardison was up.

He wasn't too sure about speaking to Eliot all the time because Eliot had been a quiet type of person so instead of talking to him Nate had gotten into the habit of reading to him and wasn't too sure if it was because Eliot was bored or relaxed in his presence when he dozed off.

Eliot seemed to sleep more than they were used too. None of them were sure if the ninety minutes were true or not but Hardison who spent the nights with him because he was night owl had informed them that Eliot slept for about three hours a night. However during the day there were times when left alone that Eliot would doze off.

He didn't seem to enjoy his time with John which came as a surprise to them. They had imagined memory or no memory Eliot would have loved physical movement but generally seemed to be put off by it and Nate could see it on his face. Nate wasn't sure what was making Eliot unhappy about his physical therapy, was it because it was hard or he didn't like John or what he was asked to do.

Since he couldn't talk there was no way to help him and even though Nate wanted to tell John to stop and let Eliot just lounge around they knew that the therapy was for Eliot's own good.

Before they knew it they had settled down onto the estate and had been there for over a month. When everyone was comfortable Nate noticed that something was slightly off with their formal hitter. He couldn't quite put his finger on what it was but he noticed that there was something.

He decided closer observation was needed to know the best course of action.


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N: This chapter is longer in length then the others because it just worked out that way. Other chapters will not be as long._

_Thank you all for the wonderful reviews you have been leaving me... it encourages me to write more and more. XOXO_

**Chapter 8**

He liked it here, wherever it was. He didn't know what he had done for these people to take him in but he was going to do everything in his power to make sure they had no reason to have him locked up again.

He really didn't remember getting out of 'that place' or the days that followed. He became more aware in the other hospital and he had memories of this place and was determined to do exactly as these people wanted him to do because he did remember 'that place'.

Here he was kept in a large room that was warm and he had a huge soft bed to sleep in. He was never left alone, there was always someone watching him and he figured that was why he was not restrained in any way.

During the night it was a black man that stayed with him. He would come in after the elder man put him to bed. The black man talked more then he could understand which he had to say was not much but he turned on the television that was in his room and liked to watch sports so he was not going to complain.

He still noticed that he couldn't sleep much and found out that the talker didn't sleep either. He himself would drift off after watching some sort of sports on television and when he woke up the man would still be watching something on TV or more frequently on the small thingy he had on his lap.

He tried to be as still as possible when he woke not wanting to bother him but he always noticed and never seemed angry that he was awake. The man would say weird things that he never understood but after a few minutes there would be something else to watch on the TV. He never understood what was happening in the things the man got him to watch but it beat staring at the ceiling for the rest of the night so he was OK with it.

When the room he was kept in started to get light it was the signal that the elder gentleman was coming and sure enough he would walk in with his coffee cup and small TV thing the talker had as well, some part of his brain provided that it was a laptop but he wasn't sure. The elder gentleman would sit on the chair and read aloud from the laptop, again he did not understand much but enjoyed the falling and rising tempo the man's voice seemed to have and most mornings he would find himself dozing as he listened.

After a while the man would get up and he knew it was time to rise. He would push himself up and was glad that the men never dragged or pulled him, he liked getting up under his own power. The elder man would then lead him into the bathroom. One of the things that surprised and delighted him was that after helping him into the bathroom the man would retreat to the door of the bathroom. When it first happened he couldn't believe that he was allowed the privilege.

When he would be done the man would return and help him wash up. He would gently lean him against the sink and then run an electric shaver over his face. He was glad that he did not run it over anywhere else on his body. He liked having hair he hoped that they let him grow it out a little bit more before starting to cut it, even now it fell into his eyes and he liked it.

After they were done in the bathroom he would be led downstairs to the kitchen where the lady with the nice voice would be waiting for him. He walked extremely slowly and his left leg seemed to drag rather than move but was glad that no one minded that he was slow or dragged him like the people in that place and even in the hospital had done. They let him move under his own power and he knew it took him a very long time to get down the two set of stairs as each step had to be tackled with his right leg and he had to hold onto the wall and the man held onto him as he went downstairs but they let him!

The journey was hard but well worth it as the voice lady always welcomed him with a smile. She would sit him at the table and then drape a towel on his lap and then one more on his front before presenting him with a bowl of warm sweet porridge. They tasted nothing like the ones he was fed back there. This one would be warm and more than one occasion tasted different types of sweet.

At first she had fed him but one morning he was brave enough to reach for the spoon before she did and he had looked up to her to see what she would say, she had not said anything she had just continued to stare at him neither pleased or angry so he had made the next step and grabbed the spoon in his fist. It was after that day she had gotten into the habit of putting towels on him because he couldn't always manage the trip to his mouth. Each reach was a struggle and his hand would shake and sometimes only a bare minimum made it to his mount but at least he did it himself.

The voice lady would take a seat next to him and talk to him as well, he did not understand these people's need for so much talking was but he let her voice wash over him as he battled the bowl of porridge. When he was done the voice lady would clean his face and hands with a warm damp soft towel and call out for someone.

The next part of his day he did not actually enjoy however he did not have a choice as these people controlled his life. He would be led downstairs, one floor this time, to an area for doing physical stuff. The elder gentleman would also come to watch but another man would be in charge of him for a certain period of time. For some reason he was vary of the big huge man.

He was asked to do various physical tasks which were hard and demanding. He found that most of the time he did not understand what he was to do or even when he understood his brain had a hard time telling his body what to do, he figured that if these people gave him more time he could manage but he was vary or even not sure how to do that.

Some days he would be asked to get in the pool and do exercises in the pool with the man other days with the equipment around the room. Some days the activities seemed to go on forever.

When he was done it would be once again the elder gentleman that led him to the bathroom, he would always ask if he needed the toilet or at least that's what he understood from his gestures. He wondered on some days if he could, he knew it wasn't the time but the gentleman always asked but he was OK with waiting for the time.

The elder gentleman would then help him bathe. He did not understand why these people wanted him to be clean everyday but went along with it as it seemed like something they liked. At least the water was warm and the cloth that the man ran over him was soft and on more than one occasion he wanted to just splash in the water. Afterwards he would be dried with lots of warm towels which left him smiling and was helped into warm thick clothes including socks.

The man who did activities with him would lead him upstairs most the time he felt that the man carried him up the stairs rather than support him however he was not going to complain because by then he would exhausted. He would then make him lie on the couch and then would proceed to massage his back and arms and legs which left him feeling mushy and he would then drift off and would be left alone for however long it would be.

Normally it was the voice lady who would wake him up and help him right himself on the couch, she would then proceed to once again put towels on him and then place a tray on his legs. He did not understand why he was being fed this much but tired his best to eat what she gave him even though it was hard to get down. The second meal was easier to tackle as it was things that he could poke with with a fork and they did not fall of the fork as they would have of the spoon.

He sometimes saw her watching him and wondered if he should try to hold the fork like he had seen her hold it but control came easier when it was in his fist.

What came next was his favorite part of the day. Normally as he was about to finish the blond girl would come skipping in and would promptly sit next to him and start to eat the rest of the food that was left on the plate while animatedly tell him stuff that he never understood. However he liked that she talked to him and most days found himself smiling at her. When he was done eating she would get up and grab his boots and would help him put them on, then she would carefully tie them while the voice lady once again cleaned him.

He watched her intensely doing this task so he could perhaps put on the boots himself. He knew they were kept in the cupboard by the door and him putting on boots meant that he was going outside. He liked going outside.

She would then help him with a coat and a hat and on most days' fingerless gloves before dragging him to his feet and starting to pull him. He always smiled when he heard concern voiced from the voice lady about something but he liked the skipping girl and didn't mind that she dragged him. She was stronger then she looked so if he did stumble which was often her pulling arm quick as lighting would become a supporting one and she would set him on his feet and then would continue to drag him once again.

She would take him outside and he wished that the time outside was longer but had no way of conveying that want besides he liked where she took him. She would take him into a house that was all made of glass and the place was incredible. The moment he entered the house he would take in a deep breath, he loved the smell of wet soil and the slightly warm and over humid air inside. There were plants everywhere, some he knew where flowers others vegetables. He didn't know why he knew so much about these things but he knew.

She would lead him towards the middle and push him down onto a high seat and for the next couple of hours was his favorite time as she would do stuff around the glass house with the plants. Most of the time she got him to help and he found that he could understand what she wanted easier than other things. He loved getting his hands dirty and helping her. He gave her a full smile the day she showed him a blooming flower they had repotted a few days before.

After several hours the talker would join them and he knew there was more to the relationship that these two had but they kept their hands off each other at least while he was there. The talker had no idea what he was doing and was not good at it. He had actually growled at the talker the other day when he had just been about to murder a plant that the skipping girl had been trying to save.

There was total silence from both to man and the girl for a long while or maybe it seemed to be long to him and then the man had laughed. A deep and long laugh that had him looking up and found that the girl had a big grin on her face as well, these people were strange but he was glad that they were not angry at his display of displeasure but made a mental note to hold his thoughts to himself even if the people he was with didn't mind relapses.

After the reaction he had been frightened, there must have been a reason why he had been in a mental institution and restrained all the time. He thought that it must have been because he was at some point in his life was violent enough to be restrained.

He knew he was violent because he had been dreaming about what he could only think of as his past. And what he saw frighten him. There was so much blood and violence. What frighten him more was that the violence he saw did not seem to bother him. He would wake from these dreams and realize that even his breathing hadn't changed. This could only mean that there was something wrong with him.

He did not wish to be restrained or locked up again so he had looked down and hunched his shoulders trying to look small and unthreatening as possible and continued to do what he was shown.

After a while the man and the girl would escort him back to the house where once again the gentleman would help him to the bathroom, this time he did not refuse the offer. After that people in the house seem to just drift around helping in the kitchen getting dinner ready and he was left in front of the fire place wondering what he should be doing. However he was contend to just sit there and watch the fire and get warm and he knew that most days he fell asleep and once again was woken gently by the voice lady.

At dinner time they would get him to sit with them and he tried not to stare too much at their food and concentrate on the food he was given. Sometimes he was given something they were eating however most of the time he was given something bland to eat while theirs smelled great. However it was way better then what he was used to so he was not going to complain. He spent most of the meal making sure that the food that was on his plate actually made it into his mouth rather than the table or the floor.

After dinner everyone would move over to the living room and he was also moved with them. During the night he was presented with what he could only term as toys. Weird puzzles that he was supposed to play with while the rest watched television, talked or sometimes played a game, he wondered what he was supposed to do with the simple games they presented him with. They were so simple that if he thought about it he should be insulted that they thought he was stupid.

However since they thought him to be this level he worked slowly, very slowly through them spending several nights on them instead of the few minutes it would take to solve one. When he reflected on it he could not solve them in the few minutes that his mind provided as his hands and fingers refused to work as he wanted them.

During the night he would find that the left side of his body would spasm, sometimes a small spasm that cramped his hand that would lead to the skipping girl moving next to him to gently massage his hand until it relaxed out of its spasm. Other nights found him breathing in sobs as the pain became too much. On those nights he would be helped onto his back on the couch and he really didn't care who helped him and then several someone's would gently massage his limbs until they relaxed. What was surprising about the whole thing was after he would have an 'episode' people would just continue what they were doing. So he learned to take it in stride.

After some time he would gently be lead back upstairs which took him an eternity to tackle and he was exhausted by the time he was up the stairs and then led once again to the bathroom. He was not sure why they lead him into the bathroom so often but he had fun brushing his teeth and washing up in general as the elder gentleman didn't mind it or helped him so he was left to do what he wanted and got more wet then he would like but enjoyed every minute of it.

The elder gentle man would then help him into comfortable sweat pants and a long sleeved t-shirt and socks which he was grateful for. The man would then lead him to the bed and help him under the covers and then would sit next to him and hand him a glass of water with the only medication he was given. He didn't really want to take them but everything else in this place was so much better than the other place that he didn't want to do anything to jeopardize anything.

Then the man would move to the chair by the bed and read to him from a book that was by there. He wished that he could understand what was in the book but he just enjoyed the time with this man anyway. The gentleman would be relieved by the talker after sometime and his new cycle would begin again.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

It was after dinner and everyone had settled down in the living room. He was left on the couch with the same idiotic toy he had been given for the last seven nights. He did not understand why he was given this one, normally when he solved one he was presented with a new one. This one he had solved after three days, the parts where the challenge to fit together rather than the few minutes it took to solve mentally. But the following night the elder gentleman once again had presented him with the same toy.

At first he thought maybe he had not preformed to his standards and had focused really hard to put it together in just one night but when he was given it again the following night he had actually thrown the man a glare and had him smirk at him in return.

For the last three nights he had been eyeing the little jumbled up connected cubes that was on the table. He had seen both the talker and the skipper play with the toy and he knew by instinct that the thing will fold into a larger cube made of smaller ones and he wanted to try it.

He looked over the rest of the people in the living room, the voice lady and the gentleman were on the couch opposite making dreamy eyes at each other and he felt like rolling his eyes at them. He looked over at the other occupants of the room, the talker was once again on his laptop and the girl and the man where playing with some sort of shiny things and having a conversation.

He very carefully left the toy he was playing with and after checking to see if anyone was watching him he reached for the one on the table.

Hardison was looking over things that could help Eliot when he saw him move towards the jumble cube. The doctors had warned them about not frustrating him by giving him things that he couldn't do and the jumbled up cube was way too difficult even for him to put together and it would be too difficult for Eliot, so he started to call out to him.

"Yow, Eliot man…"

He was interrupted by Nate, "leave him Hardison."

Hardison looked over at Nate who seemed to be solemnly focused on the smiling Sophie but was apparently watching Eliot.

"He wanted that thing for the last three nights, let him have it," said Nate while his entire body said he was talking to Sophie.

When everyone looked up Nate jerked his head and everyone got up to move over to the dining area. Hardison observed that Eliot looked up when they were moving and he noticed his eyes narrow slightly at the entire group. Even though they were all aware that Eliot did not understand and was not able to follow what was being said they still did not want to talk about him around him.

"Hardison stop looking at him," said Nate without looking their way and Hardison averted his eyes. However he did feel Eliot's eyes on him as he moved over to the dining area.

When they were all gathered around the dining area Nate began, "he's holding back," was his opening.

"Holding back what?" asked Parker turning to take Eliot in who had gone back to playing with the cube and she noted that he was making head way into it and she frowned, she played with that thing since Nate had put it on the table and it was impossible to put together.

"I don't know why he is not showing it however he is more aware then he lets on," said Nate.

"Are you manipulating him?" asked Parker turning back to the group and beginning to get angry. Since they had gotten Eliot back Parker had gotten very protective of Eliot and it was something that the entire team found very cute.

"You know how I feel about mind games Nate!" exclaimed Hardison. "And you are playing one with a guy who isn't firing on all cylinders."

"I am not playing with him," said Nate, "however I am also sure that intelligence wise he is still there, he is just not showing it and I don't why."

"Perhaps being paranoid was a character trait," suggested Hardison and was hit on the arm by Sophie.

"Is it perhaps because he has no way of communicating with us," suggested Sophie and at that they were all quiet.

"Could be the reason," suggested John who on most occasions chose to be quiet, he was after all not family. When everyone turned to look at him he elaborated, "he doesn't understand anything we say to him and we have not gone out of our way to try to communicate with him so naturally he would just go along with whatever we want."

Everyone was quiet for a minute, John was right while taking the time to talk to Eliot none of them had simplified their speech as no one in the clinic had suggested that he could understand it if they simplified it. Nor had they thought to ask him anything or gave him choices thinking that he was not capable. But if Eliot was still in there somewhere then shouldn't they try to get through to him?

"How are we going to go about this?" asked Sophie, "I mean none of us are speech experts."

"Autistic communication," said Parker out of the blue. When everyone turned to look at her she went on, "I once had a foster brother who was autistic and our foster mother had pictures of everything around the whole house. As far as I know autistic people have trouble communicating but are OK with pictures," after she was done she was quiet and no one asked about which foster home and what had happened.

"But Eliot is not autistic," said Hardison.

Once again it was Parker who answered, "autistic children are not able to communicate in the normal means because they do not understand what is being said however they are able to point to things they want. And I know that Eliot is not autistic however the principle should be the same," she suggested looking not too sure of herself.

"It could work," said Sophie with a little smile thrown towards Parker to set her at ease, "he is not able to progress speech but as you say if he is still able to think he should be able to understand what we say through pictures."

"How are we going to go about this?" asked Hardison and it was Nate who as usual took charge of the situation.

"What we are going to do first is everything he does and everything we ask him to do will be in pictures," after all he was the mastermind he knew what Parker had been talking about. "Hardison go online, I know that there kits you can buy where basic things have been pictured for autistic children, we could use some of those. We'll start by showing pictures of things to Eliot that he is doing and when he think he is comfortable with the change in the routine we'll ask him to make a few simple choices and see if he can understand what we are trying to do…" there he drifted off after all they were in foreign territory and none of them wanted to hurt Eliot.

They argued a few more points about what and how they were going to do things before moving back to the living room. And if the others had any doubts about Eliot's intelligence level it was all put to rest as their eyes landed on the perfect little cube that was sitting on the table and Eliot was once again playing with the intelligence toy he had abounded like nothing had been amiss.

Nate smiled at Eliot when he looked up, "come on it's time for bed," he said before holding out his hand for Eliot to grab and helped him to his feet, his hearth lighter knowing that bit by bit they were getting Eliot back.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

The next day found a variety of pictures going up all around the house and by the time night came around Hardison had printed out each set of autistic communication cards that were ever created and sorted through the relevant ones that they could use and almost had plastered the whole house.

They could all see that the change in the house had set Eliot on edge as he halted every time something was out of place in a room. Hardison had put up pictures anywhere he could think of, even in his bathroom. Sophie reflected that it must have been unsettling for someone who had been through a very traumatic experience and was battling a difficult recovery. He had just been settling into the house and now they were changing the rules.

Sophie had watched Eliot before the whole ordeal had happened as she had watched every single member of the team. She was a grifter it was her job to watch people and find weakness that she could exploit. She had noticed to her dismay that Eliot of old had very few weaknesses.

Despite looking like a biker and an urban cowboy and somewhere along the way losing all the military training he must have had she could still see the officer in him, Special Forces if she was to venture a guess. One that hadn't joined the military right out of high school because there weren't many prospects in the little town he lived in. She would bet good money that he came from a well off military family and it had been a career choice for him, something he would have done for the rest of life before whatever went wrong had happened. He probably had an impressive education as well, one did not read and write in several languages just because they lived in those countries.

One look into his carry-on with perfectly folded t-shirts or the bed he had made with the military corners once they were sharing an apartment had confirmed her suspicions. A life in the military gave you certain things that you couldn't easily shake off.

Eliot had liked routines, she had had noticed he went out of his way to not have them but they were still there if you looked hard and deep enough. He had also liked predictable stuff as well. So what they were doing was unsettling for him however just as she knew he would he adapted to it. It took him several days to get used to his 'handlers' weird behavior of pointing to pictures. If it was in the old days Sophie would have laughed at the frown that Eliot had on his face. She now wasn't sure what it said, was he thinking that they were a bunch of idiots as he would have thought before?

Before all this had happened she had on occasions had said things just to see his reaction to them. She remembered that one time when Nate had asked what was so good about smuggled diamonds. She had jumped in and replied 'it's the way they shimmer on the deck of a billionaires yacht in the moonlight' and had to hold in her mirth as Eliot had turned around to give her an god awful glare before turning around and giving Nate the answer he was searching for like a good little officer she knew he was.

He was someone she enjoyed having intellectual conversations with and she missed him. She had found out that she could talk about the latest political happenings in Turkey and he would have a comment about it or she could comment on the latest book she was reading and find out that he had already read it. The only thing he did not talk about was clothes and shoes however she had let that slide as no one could be perfect.

Nate and she had talked long into the nights about what would happen if Eliot was not to get any better than he was at the moment. While she had been prepared to stay with Nate for the rest of her life if she was honest with herself she wasn't looking forward to having a grown up child for the rest of their life. Her feelings for the situation were complicated, if she had to she would look after Eliot for the rest of his life without any regrets but she wanted her friend back. She wanted to push Eliot's boundaries and see if he was still in there somewhere.

So after a few days she decided to take the initiative and see if he would at least communicate with them on the basic level. She needed to know that she would at least get some of her friend back.

So when he came down to breakfast she was prepared to get him to communicate with her. She had prepared his special porridge that was made from enriched milk powder for the morning bland. She had placed the honey, brown sugar and the maple syrup with their picture cards in front of them in plain sight for him to see.

She gave him a bright smile when she saw him and was warmed when he returned it. She reflected that even if Eliot never got any better they at least got to see him smile which he seemed to do more than they were used to. At first they all had been a little unsure of an Eliot who smiled a lot however they were all used to him smiling when he saw them. Parker in particular was delighted with the idea that Eliot was happy to see her.

Sophie went through the morning routine just as normal, "Good morning Eliot, how was your night? I trust that you slept well?" she asked as she guided him to the table to his usual spot. She asked him the same questions every morning. She presented him with the porridge and took a seat across from him so she could see him and waited until he had taken a spoon of the porridge. His reaction to the bland porridge was a frown and then he lifted confused eyes up to look at her. She in return gave him a smile and pointed to the items on the table.

"This morning I want you to choose, how would you like your porridge? Would you like your porridge with honey," she said while pointing to the honey and then moving on, "or brown sugar or maple syrup?" she finished and waited.

Eliot looked at her for a movement before looking down and reaching for his porridge again. 'Oh no' thought Sophie as she snapped her fingers in front of his face to get his attention. It was something that the people at the hospital had thought them, Eliot did not like being touched and would not respond to his name however if you snapped your fingers it got his attention. It was something that she and Hardison used, Parker preferred to almost sit on him to get his attention despite the warnings of personal space and Eliot seemed to notice whenever Nate moved toward him. When he was looking at her again she repeated her question, this time making the gestures to go along with mimicking putting stuff in his porridge.

She wondered if this was a wise choice as he generally seemed confused about what she was asking him to do. Then he stared down at his porridge and picked up his spoon and just ran it in the porridge clearly not happy with the prospect of eating it bland. He either did not understand that he was to make a choice or he just thought she was being cruel with not giving him the sweet tasting stuff he was used to and leaving them in plain sight for him to see. After what he had been through she didn't put it past him to think that the people he was with could for their amusement withhold something he liked.

When he picked up the spoon to eat the porridge as it was, Sophie made her choice. She reached for the brown sugar and sprinkled it over his porridge. She had known from past experiences that if Eliot had made the choice brown sugar would have been his choice. Nate was the one that liked it bland, Hardison liked his with honey and Parker with enough maple syrup to make her hyper for the rest of the day.

Eliot looked up at her when she was done stirring in the sugar and Sophie gave him a smile to let him know that everything was fine however he seemed wary of her for the rest of the duration of the breakfast. She was a little hearth broken when he flinched away from her when she reached for him to wipe his face.

Had she misjudged the situation?


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

It was after several days of the breakfast incident that he finally understood what these people wanted from him. It had been a nightmare of a day with people pointing to pictures and waiting for him to do something however he had not quite understood what he was to do until he was in bed with the talker for company.

He had been looking forward to just sitting in his bed with the pillows popped up and watching the basketball game. He now could name each of the sports they watched and knew that it was the playoffs for college basketball that they had been watching for the last few nights. He knew that the talker would chose basketball and almost groaned when he began talking and pointing to pictures as well.

He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths, what he really wanted to do was reach for the thing that controlled the television and find the game. He had learned in the last few days that he got frustrated very easily and it was something that he thought he should keep to himself as he didn't think that these people would appreciate their necks snapped.

It was amazing that one of the things he remembered of his past was his training of killing people with his bare hands while he had been in the military. So he had been a solider somewhere in his past. He didn't think he was in the military now, these people definitely lacked the discipline to be a military unit, except him and he wondered if that was the reason he didn't quite trust him.

He felt the air of someone snapping their fingers in front of his face.

_'Damn it Hardison! Stop doing that and switch on the game!'_

His eyes snapped opened and he had no idea where the voice had come from, he looked over at the talker, 'Hardison' his brain provided, was looking at him quite concerned.

He once again watched him with a frown on his face and as he continued to stare at him 'Hardison' once again pointed at the picture of basketball and then he flicked the channel to show the game and then he continued to show him a picture of a sport and flick to the channel that had that sport. Suddenly it clicked what these people might be asking of him. Did they wish that he make a choice?

He reached out his hand to point to the basketball picture and then he halted, were these people trying to find the things he liked so they could take them away from him? Nothing had indicated that they wished to hurt him or make him miserable but you never knew and besides he wasn't sure if they were asking him to make a choice. When they had changed the rules couple of days ago the lady with the nice voice had eventually had given him his favorite sweet stuff despite him not being able make a choice and she had known which one he like too.

After a moment of reflection he decided to take a plunge and see what happened. With careful concentration he lifted his hand and after looking over the choices carefully pointed to the choice he least liked, baseball, just in case they were trying to eliminate the things he liked. He saw that his choice did not please Hardison as well however he dutifully flicked the channel to the baseball game.

He was not thrilled with the choice himself however he wanted to make sure that they were watching the baseball game because he had chosen it and Hardison was not going to take it away from the selection. He snapped his fingers to get Hardison's attention after all that is how they got his attention and when Hardison was looking at him he gestured to the cards again and watched as Hardison once again pointed to each card and then flicked the channels matching each one. This time he lifted his finger up and pointed to the ice hockey one and watched as Hardison changed the channel to match the picture. This time he pointed to the American Football and smiled when Hardison once again changed the channel.

So what they wanted from him was to make choices, he could really get to like this!

He once again snapped his fingers and would have laughed aloud at the look on Hardison's face. _'Not much fun when someone is doing it to you is it?'_ he thought. Then he pointed to the one with the basketball picture and then settled back to watch the game with a smile that resembled a smirk on his face.

* * *

_A/N: Well there you have it, Eliot is coming back slowly. That is all that I have at the moment, the rest we'll see when it shall come, not making any promises however I am planning maybe five more chapters before the end._


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

_**A month later…**_

"Nate, Nate," whispered Hardison as he knocked on Nate's door a few hours after Nate had left Eliot in Hardison's care. Nate opened the door and stated at him just waiting for him to speak after all it was the middle of the night.

"Eliot kicked me out," whispered Hardison.

"What!" came the exclamation from within the room as Sophie came to the door as well.

"We watched a football game and when it was over he reached over and grabbed the remote, turned off the TV – I didn't even know he could you know, he then pointed to the door. At first I did not understand but he even gestured for me to leave," Hardison looked at them for guidance. "What should I do?" he asked looking quite lost.

Nate smiled, "Just go to bed Hardison," he said as he turned around and made his way to his bed leading Sophie back by the hand as well.

"Good night Hardison!" he shouted as he knew that Hardison was still standing by the door. He settled back into bed and pulled Sophie down with him preventing her from going up to check on Eliot, them checking up on Eliot would lead to Eliot not so sure about the decisions he was making.

Over the last month since Eliot had realized that he could make choices and decisions and he had been getting more and more control over his life. Just after a week when Eliot had realized he could make decisions Nate had been gently but surely been lead out of the bathroom when he lead Eliot to it. He still allowed him to help him shave in the morning because his hands still shook but he looked at Nate and waited until he was out of the bathroom before getting on with business.

And that wasn't the only change, he had begun to make his own choices regarding what, where and when to eat which pleased Sophie to no extent. Just over a week ago he had spent over three hours in the kitchen just opening and closing cupboards and smelling everything that was in the fridge, pantry and all the spices in the jars. He had watched Sophie as she cooked with an intensity they had rarely seen and he had even reached over to add an extra spice to the curry she had been making.

After realizing that he could to some extend communicate Eliot's times with John had changed as well. Eliot had very quickly adapted and held up a hand to signal for John to stop and they noticed that Eliot needed quite a chunk of time to think and progress what was asked of him to do. But when given the time which in some cases seemed to be five minutes he managed to do most things that were asked of him if the information came in form of pictures.

He had managed to communicate to John that he wished to work outside and they could all see the change that being allowed to be outside and working on his own pace was having a positive effect on him. Even now he was moving a bit more in ease and was getting more and more movement. And as he exercised more they found out that Eliot slept less and less which made him wonder about the house looking and poking at things.

The only thing that didn't seem to be coming along was that Eliot hadn't get shown any signs of understanding spoken speech. When they spoke to him even if it was slow and simple he looked at them and Nate knew from the look on his face he was wondering why he did not understand. It must be frustrating for someone who could speak 12 languages and read and write in 7 of those languages like a native not to be able to understand why he couldn't and he couldn't get an explanation as well.

When he was a bit better Nate had the idea to take him back to Boston and with the help of the doctor show him the brain scans and try to convey to him what had happened.

But until that time Nate was just going to enjoy Eliot coming back to them bit by bit. He was walking on air that Eliot had showed the initiative to be allowed to sleep alone and he was going to respect that choice even if he was dying to go check on Him. He made no comment to himself when he got up an hour early from bed and went through his morning routine at super speed.

"Come on, come on," he said to the coffee machine as it made the morning coffee. He grabbed his cup and made his way up the stairs to Eliot's room.

He knocked on the door and then gently pushed the door open and stepped inside. He was not surprised to find the bed empty but his heart skipped at a beat at the sight. There was nowhere Eliot could have gone, the house had been locked down for the night plus there was no need for him to go anywhere.

Without panicking Nate made his way over to the Eliot's personal sitting room. When he walked in he wasn't surprised to find Eliot half sitting half lying on the couch just watching the sky turn pink with the signs of the morning. One look around the room showed that Eliot had gone through many of the books that were on the shelves. Nate wondered what it must be like for someone to know they could read but couldn't. Eliot had been going through books since he had discovered the sitting room two weeks ago and Nate knew that he didn't remember how to read otherwise communicating with Eliot would be easy. Also Nate had wondered at first if Eliot was going through the motions of what you would do with a book just like babies were known to do but they could all see Eliot getting frustrated he knew that it was not the case.

He took the blanket off the lazy boy and without spooking Eliot put the blanket over him. Eliot gave a slight smile without looking away which Nate knew that he had been aware of Nate the moment he entered the room. Nate sat down next to him in a position that he could see and observe Eliot.

"Everything is going to be fine you know," he said. He needed to say it aloud even when he knew that Eliot would not understand.

With that he saw Eliot turn his way and Nate couldn't describe the look in those eyes. Throughout the years he had seen a lot of looks from those eyes, yes mainly anger and annoyance especially before they worked together but over the last two years there had been times when they had been amused, happy and joking. However he had never seen Eliot look lost.

Nate just smiled at him not knowing how this was going to be better but not wanting to dwell on it at the moment so he opened his laptop and started to read the latest news. When Eliot closed his eyes and turned away Nate knew that that morning he had turned away not because he was relaxed in his presence because he wanted to get away.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

_A month later…_

The entire team made their way down to Boston. The trip had been anything but calm. Hardison who by surprise was the one that could communicate with Eliot best had shown him photos of everything that they were going to do. However Eliot had been anything but calm, he had moved back a few steps every time he came across something new which was at every single step.

It had taken a lot of gentle coaxing from Nate and by surprise gentle pulling from Parker to get him to move again.

He had been vary of the motor boat they were to take and the private plane and the car and the hospital and the list went on and on. The most difficult part had been trying to get him to have a CT scan. Nate would have never believed that Eliot would have been scared of anything however he had not wanted to let go of Parker's hand. And in the end it had been done by Nate feeding him a slight sedative and Eliot being able to see Parker until the last moment however they could all see that the former I-am-not-afraid-of-anything-retrieval-specialist almost hyper ventilating throughout the process.

They had waited patiently until the doctors had gotten themselves together and to their surprise during the hour wait Eliot had slept off the effects of the sedative with his head on Sophie's lap as she ran her fingers through his hair.

Now they were all sitting in the doctor's office and the doctor was during a fine animation of putting up pictures of different brain scans to explain to Eliot that there was something wrong.

XXXXXX

He was not an idiot, he had known there was something wrong. He could have told the doctor that if he could have. What was wrong – was what he wanted to know.

He could name each of the people in the room that were with him. The talker was "Hardison," the genius computer kid that he was in awe of, there was nothing that Hardison couldn't do with a computer or a phone. The skipping girl was "Parker," the world's greatest thief and someone that he knew he loved as much as he had ever loved his little sister. The voice lady was "Sophie Devereaux," the con artist – he did not remember much else about her except that she was a really really bad actress. How that make her a great con artist he did not yet remember. The gentleman was "Nate," the ex-insurance agent that had lost something but he was not sure what but he knew that it made him sad. He also seemed to remember that he had an alcohol problem just like his grandpa but Nate seemed to have stopped drinking which he was happy about. Nate was also the leader of their little band of Robin Hood thieves.

That only left the guy he could not name and he was waiting outside of the doctor's office which told him that the reason he couldn't name him was one he was not part of the team and second was that he had been added on after whatever had happened to him. He had yet to remember everything from his life, he didn't know how much he was missing as how could one know what they had forgotten? But there would be looks that Parker for some reason reawakened or the others would give him that had him remembering cons they run, the dinners that they would have at Nate's place, game nights with Hardison. However these people were his team NOT family and that was what was scaring him at the moment.

There was going to come a point where they were going to expect to go back to what they were doing before whatever happened and he might be left behind. He had thought that this is what was happening today. He was well enough to care for himself and that these people he loved more than life itself were not family, they were eventually going to leave him behind. Why should they care for him more than they had? He had been more and more embarrassed as he remembered more and more. Nate helping him in the bathroom was mortifying. Sophie helping him cut his meals equally embarrassing. There was no need for these people who he hadn't known for very long to care for him like they had been doing. He could understand that they might want to get rid of him.

They were going to go back to what they were doing and leave him in care of others. He had wanted to tell them to give him just a bit more time, he would get back what he lost however he had known there were things beyond his control. There was so much he could not remember and he knew there was something seriously wrong as he did not seem to understand anything.

At first he had thought that he had lost the ability to hear however he had noted that he had not been able to read as well and he heard people, it was just like they would be speaking a language he could not understand and not to mention the fact he used to be proficient at lip reading. Surprisingly understanding was not what really bothered him at the end of the day. He didn't like conversations much anyway, he could live his life without talking to anyone just fine but how could one live without being able to not read? – and what was he going to do about it? He loved reading, it had been one of his passions and he had always had a book with him. Even when he had been in the military and on patrols there had always been a book in his backpack.

He looked down at his hands as the doctor was pointing to one scan and the other and observed as his left hand spasm out of his control. On closer inspection he saw that both of his hands were slightly shaking. This was something else that bothered him, all his life he had perfect control over his body and it was how he made his living. Of course he was smart, he used his brain otherwise he would have been long dead before now however there was something wrong with his body as well as his brain. Why on earth was he shaking all the time?

He was brought out of his thoughts as a hand grabbed his and he looked up to find that Parker had gotten hold of his left hand and was massaging it. He looked up and saw that the doctor and everyone else were waiting for him and he focused his attention on the brain scans on the screen. What these people didn't know was that his university degree had been in pre-med. He had been planning on coming back home after his service and going to medical school and becoming an MD. He had been a field medic when he had been in the military. They all thought he had been a drill-sergeant or something, yes, he had been in the special-ops that was not a secret however he had been the medic for his Special Forces team.

Of course that had all been before his team had fallen into an ambush and they had spent four months being tortured at the hands of people who didn't like American soldiers coming into their country and messing with things. As the medic it had been his job to look after his team as well as he could and painfully watch as each one died one by one. After he and the only other member gotten out they had not returned to the army. They had known that their government had forsaken them and they had known that things like that happened in their line of work however neither could bring themselves to go back.

Together they had become mercenaries and roamed Africa after one thing or another on occasion coming to America to get a break. As a rule both of them did not get into a mess while back home because one, it was home, two, it would put them on the radar of the army. It was after the whole Amie thing that he had really become a hitter/retrieval specialist.

Suddenly he wanted to know what happened to Mark. They had kept in touch, at least let each other know that they were still alive, he turned to look at Hardison with a frown on his face. How was he going to explain to Hardison that he needed someone found. He noticed that the entire room had gotten quiet and was watching him. He might not understand speech however he could still pick up clues and he knew everyone in the room was waiting for him.

So he took a deep breath to get his flying and bouncing all over the place thoughts in order and got up and moved towards the scans. As he observed them up close he could note the differences between them. The turned towards the doctor and pointed to himself and then at the scans trying to convey to him that he wanted to know which one was his. From the doctors reaction he could see that the doctor was extremely pleased and noted that he must have been really bad off if this much awareness made the doctor this happy.

The doctor pointed to one scan that was in the middle and he gave all his attention to that scan. His eyes roamed over the one that was just next to it and noted that there were a lot of gray areas in his scan then there were in the other. He lifted his finger up and pointed to the Broca's area of the brain scan. On his the entire area was gray and he knew by looking at the other one that there should have been color on that area and from the look on the doctor's face he knew that his speech control of his brain had been damaged. He pointed to the scan and then to his ear and mouth and throat to get the doctor to understand what he was asking. And when the doctor nodded his head he understood that there was brain damage. Whatever happened had left him brain damaged. He rocked back on the soles of his feet considering this new piece of information – how much damage was there?

He looked back at the scans of his brain and his eyes trying to search for the areas that he knew and what they were for and trying to see if he could see what the damage was. He noticed that right away that there was slight color in parts of the hippocampus area, there were almost spider light veins going through the area and that explained his returning memories. He might not be able to regain back everything he forgot however it looked like his brain was mapping that area again and as more and more areas were coming – to mimic Hardison – "back online" he was able to remember more and more.

He turned his attention to the doctor and saw him watching him and he mimicked reading and writing once again pointing to the scan and saw the doctor move next to him and point to another area of the scan. He focused his attention on that area. He knew just by looking at the scan that the area was not damaged but dormant. He knew that it might take some time or he might never get his reading abilities back however he was given hope that there might be a chance that he would be able to read once again.

He knew that at the moment he was not really processing the fact there was something wrong and the denial and the anger would come later. He didn't really know if he could do denial when there were the obvious signs of damage. However he didn't know how he would accept this.

He looked at his team and wondered what they were thinking, would they hang around to see how much he would gain back or what if he never got back what he lost? How long were they going to hang around for?

He also knew that in normal procedures you didn't really show brain damage patients their brain scans but each case was different and his was different too. He knew there was something wrong but there was no way he could understand. What the rest of the people in the room didn't know was that even as damaged as he was he probably had more medical knowledge then the rest of his team sitting there and understood more than them.

He still had the fear that they would leave him behind, however he knew right then it would be a while. While the team would want to get back to whatever they were going to do it would be a while before they got back in the game and these people would not leave him until they were sure that he was better. And he was sure that he could by then tell when it was close at hand and he would leave himself before the team decided to dump him into some kind of a facility.

* * *

_Well there yo have it - you didn't think this was going to be easy did you? We are close to the end perhaps 3 or 4 more chapters._

_I love reviews... they make me happy and smile stupidly when I see them... so please make me happy..._


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

**_A few weeks later…_**

If Nate thought that Eliot getting better was a good sign then maybe they were better off with a semi aware Eliot who smiled at them when he saw them.

After coming back from Boston had Eliot watching them like a hawk and they were all walking on eggshells around him. They were told by the doctors that Eliot was indeed getting better. There were signs in his latest scans that the dormant areas were once again beginning to show signs of activity. While this was good news for them it seemed that Eliot knowing there was something wrong was not such a good idea as Nate had previously thought.

The doctors had told them that every brain injury case was different. As dormant areas were once again being used it could go two ways. First Eliot might suddenly remember how to do a specific thing. This was the case they saw in amnesia patients. People knew how to do certain things but didn't remember how or where they learned it. Or Eliot could relearn the skill, the doctor told them that if this was the case then they would notice that Eliot would learn it really fast as the brain would already know it anyway.

The doctor had also told them that Eliot's hippocampus area – the area that all memories were stored – was showing signs of reawakening. And the doctor told them Eliot might be remembering stuff about the past, even them. They were also advised to note changes in emotions and attitudes as memories emerged emotions would be emerging and those were powerful things if one did not remember why they loved or hated someone.

However Nate didn't know what was wrong. Why was Eliot being so edgy? Did Eliot not remember who they were and was wondering who the heck they were and why were they being so nice to him? And if he did remember then why was he so wary of them? They were family after all. Family took care of each other.

"What's the matter?" asked Sophie as she moved next to him. Nate was on the patio that surrounded the house watching Eliot with John doing exercises outside by the waterfront. The thin sheen of sweat and the fact that Eliot was breathing hard just after twenty minutes was a clear sign that he had a long way to go.

"Something is bothering him," he answered without turning around to look at Sophie.

"He could be just wondering who we are if does not remember," suggested Sophie.

"I have a feeling he knows who we are and that is what is bothering me," said Nate. Sophie reminded quiet waiting for Nate to elaborate. "Maybe he never felt like we did. We all thought we were a family however maybe he saw us as people he worked with and now he is wondering why he is here." With that Nate turned to look at Sophie.

"Perhaps he has family somewhere out there that are wondering where he is and would like to take care of him and he would prefer to be with them," said Nate, for the first time in a long time his thoughts were running into each other. In all his thoughts, plans and fears for the future he never thought that the problem might have been Eliot not wanting to be with them.

After a moment of reflection Sophie decided to voice her thoughts, "maybe it is not that he doesn't want to be with us but he thinks we don't want to be with him," she said.

Nate frowned, "how can he think that, we are here are we not?"

"Just listen," she said and went on, "we don't know how much he remembers, we could be people he just worked with for a short while and to be honest we haven't been together for very long so there might not be so many memories that pop up. He might think we are here out of guilt or obligation and when he is better we will let him go."

"Never!" said Nate with force. Even if Eliot wanted to leave he would have a fight on his hands.

"Nate!" said Sophie, apparently she was not getting through. "Just think, it took us all a while to get used to the living arrangements and remember Parker's reaction to your declaration of this," she said gesturing with her arms to incorporate the whole situation. "We all had our memories and experiences when we changed the team dynamic into this. Eliot has just woken up in this situation, it is understandable that he has doubts and suspicions. We just have to give him time and show him that we are not going anywhere."

Nate turned back to look at Eliot who was struggling with sit-ups as John supported him. What Sophie had voiced was something that Nate had not considered. He suddenly remembered Parker's tears as she thought that Nate was leaving her. He knew that all the younger members of his team had abandonment issues. Eliot might not have been abandoned when he was young but Nate knew he felt that way about the army. Nate didn't know the entire story but Eliot had shared bits here and there that Nate knew that something bad had gone down and the United States saying that they had no idea who the soldiers that the foreign government had caught were. Nate knew that some scars never healed.

Just like he cursed Parker's foster parents on occasion he also now had one for the government. He knew that some situations were unavoidable however to turn probably willing patriot soldiers into ones that had trust issues was something else. Wasn't the belief of the army 'never leave a man behind'? It sounded so nice in theory however was not really used when it came to real life.

Nate's mind was running through ideas of what they could do get through to Eliot that they were here to stay. He decided to talk to Hardison, he might have some ideas. He and Eliot had seemed to have developed a silent communication where Nate saw them sitting at one table or another where to everyone surprise Hardison did not speak a lot. He had found out early on that he communicated with Eliot better if he was silent and he interpreted what Eliot wanted to say better than any of them. Eliot on the hand had shown an aptitude towards computers that he had not shown before. He seemed to understand what to do with a mouse and a computer faster and Nate had to hold in a lot of laughter when he found out that Hardison had actually managed to teach Eliot how to navigate a War Craft game and that they spent quite a bit of time playing.

Now that Nate had one problem at least tackled he turned his mind to the other problem at hand. Not only there was the trouble with Eliot Nate had to deal with Parker and her kitten problem that had popped up. On their trip to Boston Parker somehow somewhere had found a little grey kitten which she carried back without informing anyone. She had at first been ecstatic about having a little kitten which she apparently never had before however the problem came with the fact that the kitten after a few days of exploration in the house had decided that Eliot was the one that was supposed to love and pet him. Whenever Eliot was in the vicinity she would climb on his lap and settle down quite happy when the former hitter petted her with soothing movements.

This seemed to upset Parker in which she began to give Eliot the cold shoulder and it upset the whole dynamics of their family. Parker had been one that Eliot liked to spend time with more so then the others and knowing that he upset her somehow he refused to go to her greenhouse which in return put Parker even in a deeper flunk. Words were Nate's strongest suit and he didn't know what to do with Eliot but he knew that he could perhaps get through to Parker so he found himself in front of her art room that afternoon. Eliot had once again refused to go with her and she was sulking in her room. He knocked on the door and waited. When he didn't get an answer he knocked again this time calling her name.

"Paker! Open up,"

"Go away!" came the call from within the room and Nate massaged the bride of his nose. When he lost Sam Nate had never imagined just four years down line he would be having teenage drama problems. He was so bad at this father stuff.

"Parker please," he said in a pleading voice, "I just want to talk."

He heard Parker move towards the door and she pulled it open. Nate saw that she had slightly puffy however dry eyes and decided not to comment.

"The door was not locked," was Parker's opening.

"I did not want to enter your room without your permission," Nate said, asking for permission at the same time. With that Parker moved aside to let him enter. Nate entered and looked around the room. The art room that was her private living room was clearly a lived in space and was not as organized as Parker's warehouse which showed that Parker was changing just like the rest of them. Her fanatic organization of her living spaces was giving into a more relaxed persona. Nate took a seat on one of the stools and waited until Parker had settled down as well. He had debated on how to tackle this problem all day and decided once again the family angle might work.

"When families get a new pet," he said and watched as Parker tensed up at the mention of the pet, "especially if this pet is a cat, normally the cat chooses the person within the family to be their human." He stopped for a second, he did not want to hurt Parker but an animal he couldn't reason with.

"Now I know 'Chopper'," he said giving emphasis on the name, however she had come up with that name was beyond him. "Knows perfectly well that you are her human, Parker look at me," he said and waited until she was looking at him. "At meal times and when she wants to play you are the person she comes running to," he went on giving her a smile.

"However cats are also very smart and they have a sixth sense for things and Chopper also knows that Eliot at the moment needs a lot more support and love then the rest of us and in her way that is what she is doing."

Parker looked away and Nate hoped that she was not going to burst into tears, he never did well with women and tears.

"Do you think she likes me?" asked Parker in a small voice and suddenly letting Nate know just how young she was in some ways.

Nate did something he knew was out of character for him however all of them were changing and adapting to their new environment and roles and he had accepted the father role whole heatedly.

"Oh sweetheart," he said and moved towards her to give her a hug. "Of course Chopper loves you however right now Eliot needs Chopper just a little bit more then you do."

"Do you think she would help?" asked Parker in the same small voice talking to Nate's sweater.

"She already is," stated Nate, "you can see that Eliot is more relaxed when he has Chopper on his lap and I know he sleeps better with her in his bed," which he thought was partly true as he didn't know if Eliot slept better but he had not objected when Chopper had taken up residence in his bed.

Now to get to the heart of the matter, "and it is really not fair for you to begrudge Eliot the comfort of Chopper." He really did not want to explain further hoping Parker understood. He felt Parker taking a several deep breaths thinking things over, it never occurred to Nate to let her go, she felt safe and right in his arms.

After a moment Parker moved back and said, "in that case I should go apologize," she said and before Nate could stop her she was out the door and was racing down the stairs.

She found Eliot in the living room looking out the window and was over by his side pulling him up.

"Come on Sparky, plants need our attention," she said as she raced over to the closet with Eliot in tow, she pulled out jackets and hats and gloves and were throwing the ones that belonged to Eliot on him and the rest all over the place, then she proceeded to drag him to the couch and push him down and point to his boots indicating that he should put them on.

"Come on, come on we haven't got all day," she said as she put on her jacket and was tying a scarf around Eliot's neck as well.

Nate came down the stairs just as Sophie made it into the living room to see Parker standing over Eliot with her hands on her hips waiting for him to move and just as Nate was about to intervene Eliot raised his hand and with his index finger spined it once around and then pointed it at Parker.

"Yes, yes, there is something wrong with me," returned Parker with a million dollar volt smile just like they were having a normal conversation, "are you coming or what?" she asked indicating the boots and pointing outside to emphasize her point. A small smile broke out on Eliot's face as he reacted down to put on his boots.

Nate reflected that he might not be as bad at this father thing as he had originally thought.


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Went to a Bon Jovi Concert last night, so cool! The last time he was in my country it was 18 years ago, then I was too young to attend, this time I was one of the older ones there but who cares – it's Bon Jovi! What this has to do with the story? absolutely nothing – just wanted to share.

Notes about the story: The last chapter was for Bron, I hope s/he(?) is still reading the story, it was s/he who asked that Eliot have a cat way back in chapter 6.  
This chapter is for Bprice who gave me the idea of how to get through to Eliot and I hadn't done a chapter with Hardison's point of view since the start so it fitted nicely. Thank you!  
A big thank you to (I always forget to mention it) my beta JadeAlmasy who makes sure that there are not too many mistakes with the story. Thanks so much!  
And one last thing, I need your help but that is after you read the chapter. ENJOY!

**Chapter 15**

_**A few days later…**_

Alec was the only one among the team that was comfortable with the new living arrangements and almost needed no time to adjust. He had been in foster care since he was seven and a half when he had lost his parents in a car accident. He was used to living with a lot of people. He had been an only child but it only took several months in an all boys home with eight others in a room and you got used to people being in your business very fast.

His parents had been very well off before the whole thing. In fact he could have lived off his inheritance when he had reached eighteen. Nate thought he always underestimated his own intelligence. He knew he was smart both his parents had been alumni of Harvard for god's sake! Like Nate had said he could have done anything he wanted with his life.

He was lucky in the sense of foster care as he had been moved around a few times until he had ended up with Nana. She had been a god sent and he knew if she had not gotten sick when he had been a senior in high school and need of medical care he probably would have ended up in Harvard instead of being a thief. However she had been in need of serious money and he was the only one who could get it for her. He had said goodbye to his scholarship and said hello to the world of computer fraud and never looked back.

Nana had room for five children and many had moved in an out. He was one of the few that she had that stayed with her for long term. He was therefore used to having and bickering with those of his age that he considered brothers and sisters. Even on the first day the team had gotten together he had felt a connection to Eliot. Very shortly they became friends and eventually brothers. They bickered and Eliot complained all the time but at the end of the day Alec knew that Eliot would lay down his life to protect him. And even on one occasion almost picked a fight in bar when some bikers where picking on Alec. No one got to pick on little brothers but their own brothers!

From the beginning Eliot had taken the role of the elder brother that cooked and generally looked after the family. At first they had bonded through their love of sports and because Eliot hadn't owned a TV and liked to watch games he watched them in the offices instead of bars. They had spent a lot of time together at the office watching the play offs and on occasions even going to the games.

After a while Eliot had started to teach Alec how to duck and throw a punch. Tried to take him fishing for god sakes! None of the team knew but on off days Eliot would show up at his place in the mornings and take him for a jog. Alec had known that when Eliot had shown up that he had already would have had his own run and he was just there for Alec. After a while Alec had given in and let Eliot have his way. Went for a run when he came, went to the local gym when Eliot dragged him there. None of the others ever mentioned it but his growing bulk and biceps where the result of Eliot's pushing.

During their first year together they were out having coffee when Alec's laptop had been lifted. They had both been shocked and Eliot had laughed for about ten minutes afterwards. A bunch of kids had been able to lift something from two of the world's greatest thieves. Alec had fumed and complained that the laptop had a costume made running system and some software that was going to be hard to replace. He had gone back to the office to try to track down his laptop through the internet. The moment they turned it on he should be able to track them. Eliot had said 'Whatever man!' while still laughing and told him he had things to take care of. Alec did not remember the things he shouted after Eliot that morning but they were not pleasant.

Nevertheless the people who had lifted his laptop never turned it on and Alec hadn't been able to track it but when he came into work the next day the laptop had been sitting on his desk in his office. He had gone into the kitchen to find Eliot eating an apple, he had thrown one to him as well.

As he had caught the apple he hadn't been able to stop himself from asking, "How? Why?"

Eliot had just looked at him like he was crazy – which was how he always looked at Alec anyway and had answered. "How? I am a retrieval specialist, this is what I do. And Why? – it was yours," he had said and had stormed out of the kitchen to head into the deeper regions of the office. It had been later in the day during a briefing with the team that Alec had realized that he had not said 'thank you.' But realized that there was no need, you did not need to say thank you to family all the time, they knew.

He in turn had tried to return the favor by teaching Eliot about computers. Alec had known that while pretending to not understand Eliot had understood alright. At one point he had opened Eliot's laptop to install some new software when he had noticed that Eliot was a normal computer user just like the rest of the world and he was not as ignorant as he pretended to be and a few strokes of the keys let Alec know that he was a more proficient user then most.

When they had lost Eliot and couldn't find him Alec had blamed himself. He was the one on surveillance duty, he should have been able to find the people that took his best friend and brother but it had taken him seven months, fourteen days, seven hours and six minutes to find him. And who they had found was not even the shadow of the person they had known. However Alec knew that you did not turn your back on family and he had taken the role of the older brother and had tried to guide Eliot as Eliot had guided him in the last three years. He thought that somewhere unconsciously Eliot had recognized the relationship and he had reacted to him.

Alec had been the older brother to many in the past, it was a position he was familiar with and playing it with Eliot had seemed natural. He had found out that he understood the little gestures that Eliot made better than most and was able to get him to understand what he was saying.

He didn't know if Eliot was going to get better but even now Eliot was more aware and according to the doctors knew who they were. Alec wanted to go back to what they were doing. At the end of the day Alec had not seen himself as a criminal, he hacked but never intentionally set out to hurt people and when he fell with this crazy crew he had found a calling. He was in no way ready to retire and wanted to continue to help people and in order to do that Eliot had to get better.

And that is how he found himself in the position he was in, sitting at the huge table in the living room with Eliot next to him with a huge stack of photos in between them and he was going to try to explain to Eliot that the team was here to stay. He was taking Nate's word that this was the problem and Eliot was not sure of his place in the team. If it was up to Alec he would said let it slide and let it work itself out but he had been asked to try.

Alec looked Eliot over. His hair was just falling into the middle of his face and with the weight loss he looked young and Alec would never admit it aloud but 'cuter'. Sophie had been the one who had been cutting his hair and Alec knew that she was taking advantage of the fact that Eliot did not object and gave him the most flattening cut he could have. Alec had secretly been jealous of Eliot's easy way of dealing with women, something he himself always had trouble with despite trying to prove otherwise. Now he knew despite the lack of awareness if they were back in the city they would have to beat women off with a stick when they lined up to the help Eliot.

He had placed the photos in front of Eliot and was just watching him sort through them. They were photos of the team taken over the course of the last three years in various poses and places. Alec had no idea what kind of sorting Eliot was making of the photos as he would stare at a photo for over two point six minutes and then place it on to one of the six piles he was making. Looking over the piles Alec could not make heads or tails of why some of the photos ended up in each pile. Maybe Eliot was just randomly placing photos however if he was to make a bet he doubted it.

Then Eliot came across a photo of all them on the Christmas before when Nate had gotten them all gifts. Parker had wanted snow but there had been none until Christmas Eve however the snowfall for the next few days was so great that no one could go out. Three days later the entire team had walked to Nate's from their various houses and spent the day there as the entire city stayed at home. In the afternoon they had all gone out and had a blast in the snow having a snowball fight with the local children, Parker and Eliot had built some of the scariest snowmen that Alec had the fortune of seeing. They had built several on and around cars making the whole place look like the cars had run over the snowmen looking like a massacre. Alec had thought that there was something wrong with both of them however could not ignore their child like laughter as they came up with more bizarre scenarios to create.

The photo was all of them and was taken by a local who asked if they would like one together as they were snapping pictures in all various combinations. They were all red from the cold and the excursion however their smiles reached into their eyes and beyond. It was one of Alec's favorite Christmas'. Just then it hit Alec on how to get through to Eliot. He dug through the pile and handed him one of the team looking lost but taken several months after he was lost. The difference in the feelings with both pictures was clear as day and night.

He pulled the rest of the photos towards him that had Eliot looking up at what he was doing. Hardison deliberately left two photos on the table. One that was the unhappy team that was still in Eliot's hand and the other was the Christmas photo. He gently pulled the photo out of Eliot's hand and laid them side by side.

"You see this man," he began, he usually continued to talk to Eliot like nothing was the matter unless Eliot was trying to tell him something, then he had learnt that the more he was quiet and the more he waited he got better results. "There is an obvious difference to these pictures. This one," he pointed to the one of Christmas, "has you in it, whereas this one, does not," he said pointing to Eliot as well as the pictures.

Then reached over and picked up a red marker that let you write on any surface, he watched as Eliot's eyes tracked his moments. And from the expression on his face Alec could almost hear him, 'seriously? You have one of those – just lying around!' Alec tried to hold in a smile as he very deliberately reached the photo of the team without Eliot and put a big red cross on it while saying "No, no, no," and shaking his head.

He picked up the photo of the Christmas one and held it up. "Yes," he said while holding eye contact with Eliot and showing him the picture and nodding his head. "Yes," he repeated while with his free arm to include the house and all those in the living room.

Eliot continued to look at him for over a minute and Alec really wanted to know what was going on in that head of his. After a moment more Eliot turned to take in the living room, as he turned he noticed that everyone's attention in the living room was on them and as he made eye contact with Nate first, he got up from where he was sitting to come and stand next to the table.

Nate picked up his cue from Hardison and as he made it to the table he repeated "yes," while nodding his head and pointing to the picture. Next Eliot made eye contact with Sophie and was rewarded the same response as she too joined them at the table. Finally Eliot's eyes sought out Parker's and she moved over to the table carrying Chopper.

"We are a family Sparky," she said, "we are not going anywhere." With that she held out Chopper for him to take. For her the symbol was clear.

He looked over his team and suddenly he understood what they were trying to say, he got why they were in the middle of nowhere with him. They were here because of him and they were here to stay and from the look of things as long as he needed. He didn't need to over analyze the situation, he would still leave if they wanted him to but the Christmas photo had brought forth the memories and feelings of that day and he knew that he would not leave these people. He had said it three years ago, 'I quit this crew when I quit this crew.' And on that day three days after Christmas he knew he was never going to quit this crew, this 'family' and knew and now remembered that they were not going to quit either.

He looked them over once again and reached out to take the little menace that seemed to like him from Parker and gave a little nod with his head to signal that he understood. That had all the people in the room break into smiles and after a moment they began to move back.

He reached out to touch Nate on the arm to get his attention and when Nate was looking at him, he pointed to the Christmas picture and made a motion with his hands to mimic the Samurai sword that he now knew he had. After a moment of looking at him had Nate shaking his head and saying what he assumed was a negative statement. He broke out into a real smile that he couldn't contain, he hadn't imagined that they would hand over the sword anyway.

XXXXX

If Nate thought they had jumped a big hurdle and that things might be slightly better from now on he was proven wrong that night when Eliot refused to take the muscle relaxant that Nate held out. Nate had no way of conveying to Eliot that he was addicted to it and he would go through withdrawal when he stopped taking it, so he had taken the pill back but settled down next to the bed to wait out the night. Eliot had made no comment to Nate taking up residence next to his bed and had just turned his back on him and gone to sleep.

It was somewhere in the middle of the night when Eliot had woken up shivering and had made a dash for the bathroom to throw up. Nate had followed along and ran a wash cloth across his forehead and neck trying to get him to settle down. After spending several hours in the bathroom he helped an exhausted and shivering Eliot back to bed. He helped him change his t-shirt and once again silently held out the pill.

Eliot gave the pill a long stare and then his eyes lifted and met Nate's. For the very first time Nate saw Eliot Spencer looking back at him, Eliot held out his hand for the pill and Nate placed it in his hand. When Eliot made a give gesture with his hand Nate reached into his bedside drawer and drew out the prescription bottle that was there and handed it over as well. When Eliot took the bottle he tried to get himself off the bed, Nate reacted over and helped him up. Then Nate silently followed Eliot into the bathroom where we watched in silence as Eliot gave the pill in his hand one more look and just turned his hand and the pill fell in the toilet, he followed that up by opening the bottle of pills and also up handing them into the toilet. He looked over at Nate as he reached for the flush asking if it was OK and Nate nodded his head respecting Eliot's decision on the matter.

He then helped Eliot back to bed and settled him down and he himself popped up a few pillows on the other side of the bed and settled down next to Eliot to help him out during the night. He knew they were in for a rough several days as Eliot de-toxed from the narcotics, even months to come as they tried to get Eliot back as much as possible however Nate knew that from now on the road was only up for the whole family.

* * *

Help Needed: If you have not noticed we are nearing the end! I have mentioned it before. Just two more chapters and the epilogue to go, now chapter 17 is fully written as well as the epilogue and most of the next chapter (16) however the next chapter opens with Eliot reflecting on having a little temper tantrum and destroying some of the teams stuff (sorry for the spoiler but I need help). Now as you can guess Hardison is easy to figure out but for the life of me I can't think of what Eliot should destroy that belongs to the rest of team. If you have any ideas send them along – if not I won't be able to really concentrate on any fanfiction until the 24th and therefore you will be in for a long wait as I take a long time to think. So hit the review button and give me some ideas!


	16. Chapter 16

_A/N: I am back from New York and ready to finish this story! Don't know if any of you live there but it was hot and I've lived in Saudi Arabia of all places and never in my life have I felt like I was melting as I did in NY. Good luck to those that have to be in NY during the summer. _

_Now on with the story! _

**Chapter 16**

_**Six months later….**_

He didn't know when words finally started to filter through. It had happened so gradually and naturally that he at first had not noticed. Surprisingly one of the first words he was able decipher between all the white noise that he had learned to tune out was his name.

That had been a shock… apparently his name was 'Eliot.' To his family he was 'Eliot… something,' the surname had not yet popped back however many other things had.

One morning when Sophie had said his name and to his own shock he had understood, his real name had popped back in: 'Captain James T. Sherwood' – Commander when he was running the special ops unit.

His actual life had come back so suddenly that morning that he had been glad he had been sitting down. He had taken several deep breaths as his father, mother, sister, and nephew all came back to him. It had felt like a ton of bricks had been falling on him as each memory had brought forth another. He had laid his head down on the table over his crossed arms and continued to take deep breaths to control his emotions.

He had felt someone sitting down next to him and rubbing soothing circles on his back and from the cologne and lingering coffee smell he knew that it was Nate. He had choked back a sob when he remembered that his father had used this exact calming method on him, especially after his mother had passed away when he was twelve while giving birth to his little sister.

His parents had been sickeningly in love and were the perfect couple. They had a son that had a few problems that they never let them be bothered by them or let their son be bothered. Their son they had discovered very early on was an insomniac. They had tag team him when he was younger and had introduced him to books when he was old enough to read. He remembered nights when he would wake up not being able to go back to sleep then he would turn on his bedside lamp to read and after a few moments one of his parents would always show up to ask if he was ok, then he would be provided with a glass of warm milk and a reminder that he could call on them should he need anything.

They had also known that their son had an anger management problem, he recalled over hearing his parents talking about it when he had just started school and they had been called into school for his apparent picking fights behavior. The school counselor had apparently had told them that it might have been one of the effects of the insomnia and that they should seek professional help. He recalled that his father had never let it get in the way and had signed him up, against the counselor advice, into any martial arts class he could find.

He recalled his father's comments about remembering to breathe when faced with strong emotions and sobs threatened to break out as he recalled getting the news of his father's death just two years later at the age of fourteen. He was mourning the death of his parents once again back to back. After losing his father everything in his life had gone downhill. There were no grandparents or aunts and uncles to take him in and his father's cousin had no idea what to do with an over the standard smart however violent fourteen year old. And in the end he had found himself in a military boarding school and summer camps and had enlisted just after graduation.

That morning he mourned a sister he never really got to know as she too was raised by his father's cousin who had taken her in after his mother's death. A working colonel with a twelve year old son with anger issues wouldn't have been able to take care off a little baby and it wasn't fair on the child so off she had gone. Throughout the years Eliot had only seen Holly a handful of times and mourned the fact that he had never been really allowed to get to know her. He had no idea where she was, only that she had married a good however fanatically religious man and lived in a small town somewhere. One more thing on the list of things Hardison had to to look up.

He had laughed between sobbing when he realized that there was no way Hardison was ever ever learning his real name and how he was named. His father had been a military man. A Lt. Colonel when he had been killed in action when helping a border dispute in a foreign country that he had never been able to find out. He however had been a die hard 'Star Trek' fan and his grandfathers' names had been James and Thomas giving his father just the right ingredients to name his son after the Captain of the Enterprise. Even early on he had learned because of his Dad that when he said his name it was 'James T.' for years he was just J.T.

When he had entered the military and reached the rank of captain there had been a running joke by those in his squadron to call him 'Captain James T. Kirk.' He had had many laughs in his life over the name, never became a great fan of the show. He refused to watch after his father had been killed but by the time he made captain he was 22 and his father had been a happy/sad memory that he could look back on.

It had even saved his life in the godforsaken prison when they had been caught. When asked his name he had replied 'Captain James T. Kirk' no lie - expect the surname - it had taken his holders weeks to realize. He had been tortured less because the others due to protocol were not supplying the enemy with their names, he on the hand had given them not only a rank but also a name. At the end there was always someone in some country that was a Star Trek fan.

He didn't know how long he had sat at that table that morning letting the good and bad times just wash over him, just shaking his head whenever someone approached him but was great-full that he was given the space to mourn his life in piece.

After that morning things had started to come back to him faster and when he had finally pulled it together enough to know what was happening he had been angry and frustrated beyond doubt by being locked in his own mind in silence. However he had to hand it to his team, he owned them a debt that would never be paid.

They were patient and understanding for him. He knew there were times that he had not really cared and their caring seemed too much like pity and he had lashed out. He mentally made a list of things he needed to get for the team to replace the things he had destroyed. That is if he could ever recall the combinations to his bank accounts!

For Nate; he needed to get a new chess set. Shortly after he had became more aware Nate had pulled out a beautiful chess set made with sapphire stones. It had taken him a while to remember how to play chess and how each piece moved however Nate had been patient and slowly as they played a game each afternoon it had come back to him.

One afternoon he had been irritated, it had been a day when everything had been going the wrong way and nothing had made sense. He had sat down to play and for a while everything seemed to be going fine and then he had moved a piece only to have Nate reach over and move it back. Normally it would not have been a big deal, Nate would do that if he moved pieces in ways they were not to be moved. However that day it was the drop that filled the glass and something in him had snapped and he had, in one movement, the whole chess set smashed against the wall.

At the time he had walked off to get some fresh air to try to calm down but had known that some of the pieces at least must have broken. And when he had seen the board next day he had noted that the white side was missing a knight, a rook and a pawn. And the black/green was missing a bishop, two pawns and its queen.

He had also remembered after the incident that the chest set had been a gift to Nate from his grandfather. One of the only things Nate had of him, Eliot had felt like an ass however also had been frustrated that there was no way he could apologize for the outburst expect try to replace the lost pieces when he could. He knew of a stone work smith in Morocco that would be able to duplicate the same pieces when provided with a sample.

For Sophie; he knew he needed to buy a number of shoes or better yet get a new credit card and present her with it so she could go shopping with his money. He had no idea what had set him of that day, actually he knew but was not going to mention it. He had literally gone berserk in the hall closet which somehow had more than enough of Sophie's shoes and he was sure that he had destroyed enough of them to earn her wrath if he had been himself. He had spied her going through the closet later in the day and known that the feeling in his gut would have not been there a couple of years ago. She had looked like she had lost her son. Once again he was faced with the inability to apologize.

For Hardison, he needed to buy a new laptop. How he was going to manage that was beyond him and why he had destroyed one was embarrassing enough. They had been playing some sort of game that he did not recall and probably would have never played if he had all his memories and abilities intact. He knew that the games Hardison would choose would be specific to help him build his hand and eye coordination and he would never admit that he enjoyed them even under torture which he had been put through. However that night when he had seen the 'game over' sign the laptop had found itself being flung to the wall where it broke into eight different pieces. He had only hoped that it had not been Hardison's main computer.

It was after Parker's incidence that he knew that he needed some sort of control over his emotions. He had been working on a puzzle that had been hard to put together and had noticed that he was shaking more so then usual. When because of his shaking the whole thing had collapsed he had gotten up and had thrown the chair he had been sitting on towards the wall. A drawing on the wall that he had never noticed had fallen off and the frame had shattered. Only after Parker's gasp and her running over to examine the drawing had he noticed what it was.

It had been a drawing of the team, perfect replica of them. It was of a scene from their second year together. They were all sitting in their preferred places in Nate's apartment. Parker had drawn and had shared the drawing only after they had commented on her drawing abilities after the 'godparent's' job. Apparently during sometime it was framed and hung on its place of honor in their new home.

Parker had looked up from the broken frame but thank god whole picture with eyes that were hurt and angry and with tears that refused to fall that he had realized that he needed help. The next day he had approached him - it was frustrating to know that he did not have a name for the man that was obviously hired to help him but let it slide as he had at the moment so many other problems to deal with.

Nate had a habit of watching him exercise, at first he had been frustrated that Nate had always watched him but after a while he had noticed that the reason that Nate watched him was because that was what father's did. He knew that should his father had been alive he would have been in the same place watching over his progress, never letting a stranger be alone with him despite the fact that he was almost forty. When his father had been home he had come to every one of his out of school activities to watch. When commented on the fact he had said he had so little time to spend with his son that he wanted to cherish every single moment that he was home. He wished that Nate had been able to meet him; they would have liked one another.

That morning he had been able to convey to him that he wanted some Tai Chi, and with that had followed more eastern exercises and he himself was able to recall guided meditation that he knew surprised his team however they let him alone as they noticed that he would calm down and it helped with his anger. He needed the meditation times during the day.

After a while they settled into more or less routines where they were no longer focused on him but everyone just kind of hang around doing their own thing and he knew that he at one point wanted to go back to civilization where there were bars, music and art galleries. (He would never admit it – thank god at some places that he could not speak but he enjoyed art galleries, more classic then modern.)

He was aware and so was the team that he was able to understand some words. He responded to them better than others. When someone called him by name he would look up and he understood simple speeches if they were slow enough.

For the last few weeks in the privacy of his bathroom he had been trying out words. Just two mind you but it was progress. He knew what he wanted to say but had to think really hard to get his brain to provide him with the words to his mount. Tonight he wanted to try them out for real and let the team know that in some sense that he was still there.

He was sitting at the table with Hardison after dinner putting pieces of a puzzle together. They had started as simple puzzles for him to do however as they had gotten more complicated the other members had also at times could be found around the table trying to put it together. The puzzles they were doing would finish faster if Parker wouldn't steal pieces from them. When the whole thing would finish they would find themselves looking at a puzzle with at least ten pieces missing. After a day or two Parker would bring them down and with glee put them in.

He had even caught her a few times nicking a piece. He had growled at her to let her know he was not pleased, when caught she would just release the piece and then give him a kiss on the cheek and run away before he could do anything about it.

Tonight however he was not concentrating on the puzzle but on Hardison himself. He as usual was talking nonstop, it apparently did not matter to Hardison whether he could understand or not. He listened intently until Hardison looked up and said,

"You know what I'm saying man?" it was a question he had heard enough to progress and what he was waiting for. He held up a hand to hold him off. It was his sign to the others that he needed time and he wanted something and as usual Hardison stopped talking to look at him.

He concentrated on the word he wanted to get out and slowly but deliberately looked up from the table into Hardison's eyes and said, "no."

The word was so softly spoken that at first Alec had not understood and then suddenly his eyes got bigger and he looked at Eliot who at that moment broke into a grin.

"Did you just say what I think you said?" asked Hardison so slow and precise that Eliot understood the whole thing. He frowned; he knew this word as well. After a moment where Hardison held his breath he was able to get out another word,

"Yes," he said with a grin. That had Hardison jumping up and calling the others and holding his fist to his mouth as tears came to his eyes. He couldn't help but laugh at him. As the others gathered around asking what was wrong, one question Nate asked filtered through.

"Hardison are you crying?" as Hardison relied with god knows what, but if he had to venture a guess would be something like, 'something in my eye man," he decided to reply.

"Yes," he said. That had the whole conversation stop and turn to him to look at him in shock. He knew that he would not be able to get the whole sentence out but enough to tease his brother.

"Yes," he repeated and pointed to Hardison and then with his index and middle finger traced tears down his own face and with a shitty grin said, "yes" once again pointing at Hardison.

The look on Hardison face priceless, he could not believe that Eliot was using the first time he could speak to make fun of him however looking around the room he noted that he was not the only one who was near tears. Parker jumped into his lap and gave him a hug like the fact that he could now just say two words was the signal that they had finally got him back and Nate and Sophie were looking like proud parents that saw their child utter his first words. It had taken them almost a year but this was the sign that they would more or less have their friend, brother, confidant and son back.


	17. Chapter 17

_I got over a 100 reviews… I got over a 100 reviews… (does a happy little dance) – sorry I was just over excited yesterday when I saw the number – you guys make me soooo happy! I am a fanfiction reading junkie and when I am not sure about a story I look at the reviews, if it has over a hundred it is bound to be good right? Right?_

**Chapter 17**

_**A year later….**_

Nate was frantically looking around for a com. He was at Sophie's and his new estate just outside of Boston in his new office that had just been set up several weeks ago.

"Parker," Nate said through the com as soon as he located one among his things on his table and pushed it in his ear.

"Yes," came the whisper, not and also exactly what he was expecting.

"What are you doing?" he asked trying to keep calm.

"Nothing. Why?" came the way too short answer.

"Where are you?" asked Nate instead.

"Just around," said Parker being evasive.

Nate had had enough, "Parker!" he said, "I know you and Hardison were planning a heist and wherever you are you better not have Eliot with you," he said in his best I am the father and I should be obeyed voice.

"I can decide," came the quiet answer that stopped Nate in his tracks. Nate hadn't expected him to have a com.

Eliot since gained his cognitive skills back almost a year ago was always soft spoken and rarely did he speak in full sentences however the rest of the team were patient with his halting speech and on most occasions he rewarded them with almost fluent conversations. The doctors were amazed at the amount of recovery that he had made calling him a miracle recovery however Nate knew that despite the doctors' marvel at his recovery it still was not enough to satisfy Eliot himself and it at points annoyed him. It took him longer to reply on the phone or the coms because he had a harder time understanding speech if it was just audio none of the team mentioned it.

They had moved back to Boston just two months ago. After two years of living in Maine and a long recovery Nate had been hard pressed to let Eliot leave his presence, Parker and Hardison had gotten a place in the city and were now officially giving living together a chance.

Nate and Sophie had gotten themselves a place outside of the city with quite a piece of land and stables and the whole thing. Sophie wanted to go all out and Nate had relented and after vicious background checks there was a small army of staff to help them around the estate. They decided that they were not going to do anything for a while, just live off of Sophie's money. It took some time for Nate to get used to the idea of using her money however he was reminded that he had basically been living on the team's funds for the last several years.

Eliot had made noises about wanting a place of his own however neither Nate nor Sophie had been ready to let him go. He had finally relented when Nate and Sophie were fine with him living in the coachman's house that was on the estate, that was remodeled just for him, for the next few months (at least a year – if Sophie had her say) just until he got used to living in the city, being with people once again. He was to have all his meals at the main house with Nate and Sophie. He had grumbled under his breath that he was a grown man for over a week however the smile on Sophie's face when he had finally relented was enough to pacify him.

However now all the young members of the family were missing and Nate knew about the Chinese Terra Cotta Warriors coming into the Boston area on their moving world exhibit. Nate remembered distinctly Parker saying that she had never stolen a 'clay man' before and Hardison saying how it could be arranged.

Eliot had mentioned something about wanting a clay horse however Nate had not been really listening to what was being said, he was just happy that Eliot had been a full participant of their conversation. He wouldn't have minded if the two of them went and stole something by themselves however it looked like they had dragged Eliot with them and he was pissed!

"Leave whatever you are doing!" he said.

"Why?" asked three voices at the same time.

Nate took a deep breath. He thought they were over these things. "You are the good guys now remember?" he asked.

"We were the good guys almost three years ago, now you and Sophie want to go all domestic and what are we to do?" answered Hardison.

"Not steal stuff!" said Nate.

"You were OK with us planning the heist all last week. You never said anything!" replied Parker.

Nate closed his eyes as he tried to calm himself, "that was because you were just planning to see if it could be done. I never thought you would go through with it!"

"We're thieves!" exclaimed Parker.

"Were," said Nate emphasizing the word. He wasn't sure what he was more angry and worried about. The fact that the three of them had set out to steal something that hadn't ever been stolen before or the fact that Parker and Hardison had dragged Eliot along for the heist with them.

"Fun," came the short quiet one word answer, giving him the answer that Hardison and Parker and not dragged Eliot anywhere despite what he wanted to believe.

Nate took a deep breath massing the bridge of his nose this was not something he was going to sort through talking to them through the coms.

"Please," he pleaded changing tactics, "just don't steal anything today and come home," he said every aware that if these guys wanted to go through with the heist there was not much he could do about it.

"Yes boss," came the answer from Eliot followed by the order, "Parker, Hardison let's go," even though Eliot had lost everything and had to relearn almost everything once again at the end of the day when he gave an order to the younger members of the team they were obeyed.

XXXXX

That night the younger members of the team were all sitting on the couch next to each other and Nate was walking up and down the living room. Sophie wanted to hold onto her mirth. They looked like a bunch of teenagers about to be told off by their father for throwing an unauthorized party rather than a grown up group of the world's best thieves who had set out to steal something.

"What do you except us to do man?" asked Hardison not being able to take the silence anymore.

"Not steal stuff!" exclaimed Nate.

None of them replied with the 'but we are thieves,' statement knowing it wouldn't go down with Nate every well.

"You no longer want to help the helpless and we are left with nothing to do," said Parker like that explained everything.

"Bored," said Eliot, then he frowned and they all waited until he collected his thoughts. "We were bored and it seemed like it… would be…" he frowned once again searching for the word he needed, no one helped him. Eliot did not appreciate the help however he appreciated that they waited. Any other person would have provided him with words to try to move the conversation along. The team on the other hand waited even if a conversation with him took longer than it should have. Finally he looked up, "exciting," he finished followed by a question, "What do you want us to do?"

"I shouldn't be the one to tell you what to do! However I expect all of you to find other things to occupy your times if you are looking for entertainment," said Nate and then continued, "Between the three of you, you probably have more brain power to run a small country."

"I am sure you can find something that will be fun and entertaining that is not going to break any laws," this was something they had discussed before and Nate was tired of repeating himself.

"Why?" asked Parker. As Nate was gearing up to give the right and wrong speech he had tried to instill in them in the last two years without success when Sophie answered for him.

"I am pregnant," her statement was followed by complete silence, Nate looked at her completely shocked at the statement.

Sophie moved over so she was standing in front of the young thieves and she reached out and took hold of Nate's hand. "And we would like it if our son or daughter didn't learn how to hack or repel or break peoples arms until she or he reached at least sixteen," she said. Everyone continued to look at her in shock.

"I also do not want to go onto any rescue missions of any sort until he or she is out of diapers," she finished and concluded with, "am I clear?"

The younger members of the team broke into smiles and got up to hug her and a shell shocked Nate before promising to be good and moving away towards the kitchen where there was food and discussing possible names.

When they were out of the room Nate turned towards Sophie.

"What?" asked Sophie answering Nate's questioning look, "I at least brought us a year or two," she said.

"You're pregnant," repeated Nate, Sophie's brilliant smile was all the response he need.

Over the next two years there were not many incidents that Sophie and Nate ever were aware of however just after little Ben turned two and was properly toilet trained there appeared a new horse in the stables on the estate in Maine. Neither Nate nor Sophie made any comment about the stall that got emptied out or the name plaque that went up by the horses stall stating that the horse's name was "Qin" nor did either of them ever mentioned the terra cotta horse that took up residence in the stables.

* * *

_A/N: Just the epilogue to go now… should be up tomorrow. I am sad that this is finishing however being able to finish my first fanfic… a good feeling._


	18. Epilogue

_Well here we are. Originally the last chapter was written as the end chapter way back when the team had just found Eliot and I had to make the decision of how much I wanted Eliot to heal. However sometime in between the epilogue would not leave me alone as I wanted to know where the team would end up._

_I hope you have enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you to all that have reviewed and added this story to their favorites. I don't have time to reply to every review but know that I cherish every single one._

_A big thank you to my beta JadeAlmasy for catching the mistakes and hopefully making it easier to read._

**Epilogue**

It had been seven long years since they had taken down Damien Moure and ten since the team had gotten together and if someone had told Nate that he would be this blissfully happy with life after losing Sam twelve years ago he would have shot them.

But he was. He was content and happy beyond anything he could have ever imagined. When he was at the worst in his life a group of thieves had come into his life and they had become his friends and eventually his family. He didn't quite remember when the lines had began to blur and the younger thieves that agreed to work with him became his children but they did.

"Stop fidgeting," he told Eliot and moved over to fix his tie. Eliot glared at him but let him have his way. Despite over coming all odds there were still things that Eliot had trouble with. When they came up the family had learned to take them in stride and not be bothered by them however a few of them were amusing such as Eliot's inability to tie ties if he was looking down. He was fine if he was tying someone else's tie however his own was impossible.

"There. Perfect!" said Nate as he stepped back to take in who he considered to be his oldest son in his dark grey stripped tuxedo, he was wearing a light blue vest inside the tuxedo that brought out his eyes with a matching tie and handkerchief in the pocket all of which was picked out by Sophie.

He was getting married today!

Eliot had met Claire over three years ago in a book store and they had started dating. They actually had been living together for two but three months ago over a family dinner Eliot had announced that they were going to get married. The declaration had made Sophie ecstatic as she had finally been able to organize the wedding she always wanted. When she and Nate had tied the knot, just after her announcement of pregnancy, he had been adamant that it would be a small ceremony. The whole family had flown to Santorini to have a beach wedding, it had been just them and casual. Hardison and Parker despite living together for the last four years were yet to be married. So when Eliot's wedding had come up he and Claire had let Sophie have her way. The wedding was happening on the estate in Maine and the guest list was extremely small however the wedding itself could easily been an example wedding for several magazines.

Nate himself was in a matching suit as well as Hardison who despite being the best man was nowhere to be found so taking care of Eliot was left up to Nate. He had to help Eliot shave that morning because his hands had been shaking and Nate was sure that it was because he was too nervous rather than the excuse that 'I am not feeling well.' Nate had smiled and let him have his way. Eliot had been shaving by himself for over five years and most mornings he did it with an open razor just to prove to himself that he was steady enough to do it.

About a year ago Eliot had announced that he was going back to university to try for his MD that he had left so long ago. The entire team had looked at him in shock, even after all this time they had no idea that Eliot had only been three semesters away from becoming a doctor. He had to take certain courses again and still had about a year to go but he was taking his time just enjoying life.

Nate looked him over with a critical eye and took in the hair that just fell short of his ears just like when they had first gotten together. Eliot still liked his hair long however Claire thought he looked 'cuter' with shorter hair so he had compromised and cut his hair for the occasion of their wedding. He had been sure he was never going to live that one down with Hardison. He was wearing a loop earring in one ear and no matter how much Sophie had nagged that morning she had not been able to get him to take it off.

Nate reflected that Eliot looked good and fit. He had never gained back the bulk that he had due to the effects of the drugs however you could tell that he was fit under the clothes. It was always a sour point among them that Hardison nowadays looked bulkier then Eliot however none mentioned it especially when Eliot could still wipe the floor with Hardison if he wanted to. Eliot's left leg and arm still on occasion spasmed although he had found out that wearing a knee and shoulder brace helped. Nate knew that it bothered Eliot that his body still did not responded like it used to. Add to that, that he still had cognitive troubles as well it wasn't always so easy to be him. However Eliot had accepted the hand that fate had dealt him humbly and it was because of that attitude that Claire had fallen in love with him and Nate could not ask for a better person for Eliot to marry. Him meeting Claire had been an adventure in its self where Parker had played the love culprit and therefore Parker was the maid of honor today and had been squealing like a teenage girl for the last four weeks.

Suddenly there was a lot of noise as the four year old Ben ran in wearing an identical suit to Eliot's and he was followed by two noisy identical three year old girls who also came in screaming. They looked very cute in their pink flower girl dresses that of course Sophie had picked out. They were Pepper and Penny and were Parker's and Hardison's twins. The cutest little girls you could ever meet, who were an exact cross between Parker and Hardison. They both had fair skin, big brown eyes perfect for begging and dark curly hair which today was interwoven with flowers.

Ben ran around the room until he managed to get behind Eliot and grabbed onto his legs wanting to hide. As the girls came rushing towards them Nate stepped in between knowing that in under a minute they would all be rolling on the ground, Eliot included, ganged up against Eliot.

"Now children," he said in his best I am the father voice – it seemed to work on the older members well enough however not always on the next generation. "We don't want all of you to get dirty before the ceremony now do we?" he said and when that didn't seemed to have any effect he added "What would Sophie think?" he after all used to be able to con the best of people.

That seemed to do the trick. The children who have been exposed to Sophie all their lives had the same sense of respect for clothes that she seemed to have. They calmed down and started to question their favorite person in the world about his wedding. Eliot bent to their level and answered their questions with a patience he never showed adults.

Sophie came rushing in after the children a moment later and gave them all a smile. She looked radiant in her tailor made dress with a hat for some reason. She ushered the children out with an expertise that did not match her lady image. She had settled down into the mother role like this was what she was born to do. And when the twins came she had stepped in to help Parker with them. Parker and Hardison had even moved in with them for a while until they were comfortable with handling the twins. For Nate and Sophie it had been like having grown children, toddlers and grandchildren all rolled up in one.

Sophie nowadays worked with under privilege children teaching them drama. As Nate watched her he wasn't sure if these children were getting a drama class or 'How to con someone 101' class however everyone who took her class came out with more confidence so there were no problems.

In fact almost all of them worked with inner city under privilege children. It had been Parker's idea after the whole do-not-steal-the-terracotta-soldier deal. She had wondered into a children's shelter in town and picked up a brochure and a week later she had announced that she wished to teach children who lived in the city to grown their own things. Suddenly Nate had found his next calling. He had dedicated part of their land outside of the city to Parker's project and Parker had built up a set of green houses with a lot of help from Eliot and children from within the city rotated to come and visit and learned about growing vegetables, fruits and flowers.

It hadn't taken Nate long to convince Eliot that they need some horses in the stables that the children could ride and for Sophie to give them some drama classes and before they knew it they had one of the biggest volunteer facilities in the state running for inner city children. Nate knew that he could somehow convince Eliot to be the onsite doctor for the organization once he graduated. Even from the start he had been the one to tend to the scraped knees and the splinters to the fingers. Nate really enjoyed the day to day organization of their little world and after all their lives the rest of the family felt good at being able to give back to the children as well as the community.

After the children left Nate looked at his watch and then over at Eliot, they had just ten minutes to go. Just then Hardison poked his head in and said, "Sophie says everyone to their places in five minutes," he finished with a grin that went from one ear to the other, flashed a photo before they could stop him and walked out.

Hardison was the only one who worked outside of "Parker's World" as it became to be known. He worked for the government of all places, FBI to be exact. How he came to be part of their teams was a whole other story. He of course spent an incredible amount of time sorting the camp's files and financials but he had always been good at multi tasking. And the excitement of the FBI suited him fine.

If Nate was honest with himself the rest of the team except Hardison had all been ready to retire when he made the choice for them. Sophie had already been out of the business when they got started, Eliot had been a weary soul, Parker had been in the business since she was twelve and ready to do something else and Nate himself while he had enjoyed the rush knew that he was on a destructive course. So the change in life style had suited them all except Hardison and in the end that had worked itself out as well.

Nate looked Eliot over one more time to make sure that Ben had not done any damage and as his eyes roamed over him he caught Eliot's eyes. Eliot's eyes these days always carried a slight sense of loss and confusion, like one who knew what they had had and lost however in the last few weeks they had been shining with enough happiness to mask all others except now. His head was slightly tilted to the side, a clear sign that he was working through a memory that he was remembering. Through the years they were all surprised that even after so many years there were moments that Eliot still recalled things from the past.

Nate also tilted his head clearly wanting to know what Eliot had remembered. Eliot shook his head not wanting to share. Nate silently lifted an eyebrow, Eliot not sharing was new. It had taken a while but Eliot had confined in Nate as the returning memories caused him a lot of grief and he would wake up screaming in the night. Nate had then stepped into the role of the counselor as well. He hadn't done much, just listened without judgment as Eliot had tried to explain with the limited amount of language he had however somehow it had helped, the nightmares were put back where they belonged and only rotated back when Eliot was having a bad day.

"This is not the time," Eliot said with a frown, clearly the newly recalled memory was bothering him.

"You might as well as share it with me," said Nate. "You guys are going to Europe for your honeymoon right after dinner and we won't have time with all the chaos that will ensure," he finished and thought that would have been enough to get Eliot to share but he could still see that Eliot was bothered and not willing to share.

"Please, whatever it is, it's bothering you," Nate said.

After a moment more Eliot raised his eyes to Nate's to look him straight in the eye. "You told me we were not friends," he stated in a small voice.

Nate froze for a second, throughout the years he had become proficient at reading Eliot and his careless words towards a young man ten years ago seemed to have made a deep impression even if the feelings were being just rediscovered at that moment. All Eliot had been doing then was telling Nate that he was sorry for losing Sam. And Nate had thrown his kind gesture back at his face not caring that he might have been hurting the person in front of him. He had no idea what had reawakened this memory and why now of all places but he knew he had to set the record straight.

He reached up and grabbed Eliot by the sides of his face and moved closer to him. "I was a drunk and an asshole back then," he said and watched the tiny smile that came over Eliot's face. "I did not care if I hurt anyone in my grief and I am sorry that I hurt you, however I was right about one thing," he said and watched as Eliot's tiny smile disappeared and his eyes become guarded. "You and I are not friends," he said and when Eliot tried to jerk back he held firm and spoke his next words with a fierce determination.

"We are way more than just friends, we are best of friends," he said, "we are family, brothers on occasion and," he stopped to take a breath and smiled at Eliot, they were so close that he could feel Eliot's quickened breath on his face "sometimes… father and son," he said in a whisper. At that he watched Eliot's eyes shutter and they fell closed and his head fell forward a tiny bit. Nate mimicked the movement and they ended up forehead to forehead. Nate allowed the moment and emotions to run freely though them and almost felt a wound he created years ago finally begin to heal.

He almost missed the whispered, "thanks … Nate," the implication on his name clear that it stood out for the word 'Dad.'

"What are you guys doing?" said someone from behind them, throughout the years Parker never got out of the habit of just appearing out of nowhere. They both opened their eyes and took a step back to turn to look at Parker.

Parker was standing in the corner furthest from the door in her beautiful black dress. Sophie had almost had a heart attack when Parker had announced that she wanted her bride maids dress to be black however looking at her Nate had to agree that black was her color.

"Nate! Eliot!" she all but screeched breaking the heavy moment that seemed to linger in the room, "places!" she screamed and with that left without a backward glance. With a smile to Eliot to set him at ease Nate winked and left the room.

Eliot took a deep breath to calm himself. Life had not turned out as he had imagined it to be or maybe exactly as he had thought it would be. When he had joined the army at the age of eighteen he had imagined doing his duty to his country while continuing school, after all that was why he had signed up. After he was done he always thought of getting married surrounded by family with knowing his place in the grand scheme of things. Now his chosen family was there to share this day with him and so what if he was almost 20 years behind schedule for doing the things he wanted. The experiences in between made him who he was and on reflection he would not change a single moment of anything because then he would not be him and most important of all have these people in his life. After looking himself over in the mirror once more and taking a breath he went forward to open a new chapter in his life.


End file.
